Corporate Use

I had a woman at a large firm yesterday contact me about using the free tool I have for download on my website in a corporate setting. My click-wrap license agreement only allows for individuals to install the program on one computer, and for a large company, it would certainly be a hassle for each user to register on my site and download it separately.

I was so excited that they wanted to use it on so many computers in their office. When I went to their website today, I realized they actually have over 150 locations in 41 states and a few international locations!

But as excited as I was, I also feel totally clueless! At first she asked for documentation on our corporate use policy, which I don't have. I didn't exactly want to say this was the first request I've had for corporate use, so I just wrote back and said she had my permission to distribute the software within the company, but that the x months of free support I (actually I think I said "we" since that sounds more like a real company) offer would be counted from when she downloaded the product. I also offered to give them a more specific site license software agreement if she wanted.

So she wrote back to confirm that after the x months were up, they would have to compensate my company for further support, which I confirmed. And was even more excited that they might actually purchase a maintenance agreement at some point.

At that point, I thought we were good, being as clueless as I am. But then she wrote back and indicated that so-and-so would contact me about corporate use. And when so-and-so did contact me, he explained that as a large company, they like to keep copious records on their software license agreements, so he asked me to please send them a site license.

And that was when I opened my book on software contracts (the current version is called Legal Guide to Web & Software Development but I have an older copy) to find a sample site license. I saw a sample that gave license to a business at a specific address, so I went to the company's website and saw how many offices they had, and realized I would have to do something else.

I just told my husband how big this firm is and he said it isn't a site license, it is an enterprise license and thinks I could charge them for it. But I've already indicated that I wouldn't charge them. He commented that support could get out of control, but I pointed out that they had told me that they would funnel all support through their in-house software support team.

This is when it would really help to have a partner who knows business. I may have just lost an opportunity to make some recurring revenue from this company. Live and learn, I guess.