End-User License Agreement (EULA)

A type of license typically used in consumer and desktop business software sold on media (such as disks) with shrink-wrap licenses, or click wrap licenses only activated by installation on a suitable computer. Such a license is directly from the software house to the user, but is brokered by the software retailer.

For example, one might go into a shop and buy a copy of a Microsoft application in a shrink-wrapped box. In this situation the shop is not licensing the Microsoft application, rather in the box or shown on the install-screen is an End-User License Agreement, between the user and Microsoft, to which the user agrees by either: (a) breaking the wrapping; (b) clicking a dialogue box in the course of installation. The shop is therefore in the business of selling intangible goods, i.e., end-user licenses from Microsoft or another software house associated with physical goods, the media carrying the software. Similarly while a software product may be downloaded from a web-vendor or app-store, the EULA establishes a contractual relationship between the end user/consumer and the owner of the software rights.

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