You want a number of people to use WordSmith but aren't sure which licence type suits you.
There are 2 possibilities. Either way, the licence is valid forever and the software can be updated
freely as often as you like while it still develops (ie. until there
is a new major version).
- NETWORK SITE LICENCE
- A BUNDLE OF INDIVIDUAL LICENCES
= one site licence, one installation, numerous users
The main advantages are : cheaper, only one installation; the disadvantages
are: can be slower (network delays).
How it works: let's imagine a student at a PC and a network drive called N: at a given university. When the student runs N:\wsmith\wordsmith.exe, wordsmith first checks on N:\wsmith itself that the licence is valid; it then reads N:\wsmith\wordsmith.ini and reads in that where individual settings for students should be read and written, usually a sub-folder of their My Documents called \wsmith. Each student gets to save their own results and settings in their own space without ever altering the main site installation.
A site licence must be accessed from a remote drive. Otherwise it'll operate in demo mode.
= one individual licence for each user
The main advantages are : quicker, personal for the student/employee.
These licences can be time-limited by you using special extra software supplied and after the time limit is over the licences can be passed on to a fresh group of students.
No need to worry about the old students returning their licences because they expire naturally when you set them to.
The disadvantages are: purchase is slightly more expensive (though if time-limited you get numerous re-uses), each person installs.
An individual licence version must be installed and run on a drive local to the PC or laptop or a memory stick.