A Question About Licensing

I would hav preferred to send an e-mail but that doens't seem to be an option so I hope it's OK asking here.

I recently helped a pastor of a church install Logos for Windows. I think it was the Scholar's Base Package based on the price (over $500). Later another member of staff asked me to help him install it on his computer. I mentioned that as far as I knew it was OK for a "user" to install it on multiple personal devices or systems (e.g. Windows at work, Windows at home, Android smartphone, iPad) but not for multiple users to install it. I was told that the church bought it so it was OK to install it on multiple devices owned by the church. This seemed to be a genuine belief by those involved. They seem to have understood that was the case when they bought it, but they may have assumed it. The distinction between "multiple installs for one user" and "multiple installs for one owner" is obvious to me but may not be to others.

I'm concerned about how to advise them and what to do. If this is OK according to the license, I'll go ahead and install it on the second system. If it's not, I won't. And I'm certain they will be honest in their dealings. As I said, they seem to honestly believe that what they are doing is OK. Please advise. Thanks.

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Rich DeRuiter

I would hav preferred to send an e-mail but that doens't seem to be an option so I hope it's OK asking here.

I recently helped a pastor of a church install Logos for Windows. I think it was the Scholar's Base Package based on the price (over $500). Later another member of staff asked me to help him install it on his computer. I mentioned that as far as I knew it was OK for a "user" to install it on multiple personal devices or systems (e.g. Windows at work, Windows at home, Android smartphone, iPad) but not for multiple users to install it. I was told that the church bought it so it was OK to install it on multiple devices owned by the church. This seemed to be a genuine belief by those involved. They seem to have understood that was the case when they bought it, but they may have assumed it. The distinction between "multiple installs for one user" and "multiple installs for one owner" is obvious to me but may not be to others.

I'm concerned about how to advise them and what to do. If this is OK according to the license, I'll go ahead and install it on the second system. If it's not, I won't. And I'm certain they will be honest in their dealings. As I said, they seem to honestly believe that what they are doing is OK. Please advise. Thanks.

You are right and they are wrong. While the End User License Agreement (EULA) does allow a church (or other institution) to buy Logos, only one person is licensed to use it at a time.

The URL for the EULA is here: http://www.logos.com/ArticleViewer/2090

Here's a quote from the opening paragraph of the EULA: "All licenses are single human being licenses. We do not offer site-licenses, shared licenses, co-op licenses, library licenses or multi-user licenses. A church or company may be the purchaser and thus legal owner of the license grant, but may only allow one human being to be the beneficiary of this license grant."

Paul-C

PetrosD, according to the EULA for Logos 4 - see here - this licence is for one person only. It also says that Logos doesn't offer "site licences". Therefore it appears that each member of a church who wants to use Logos will have to have their own licence.

ChelseaFC

Richard and Paul have it spot on. I even called at one point to clarify this point with Logos. It's for a single user...I'd love for them to change this in the future though because it would be great if more people could benefit from this great program. On the other hand, I see why they don't allow this as well.

Cheers.

fgh

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/367614#Comment_367614

On the other hand, I see why they don't allow this as well.

It's not 'just' a licensing issue. The program simply isn't made to work with several users. They'd be forever deleting each others' notes and changing each others' preferences.

Erwin Stull, Sr.

Hi PetrosD;

I am a new user of Logos, and have thought of this matter myself. I wasn't thinking of this as far as an entire congregation using the same license, but just a few family members (wife and children). The issue that surfaced for myself was that of the link between the login and the program. Since Logos saves setting and preferences in the cloud, I can see where this would be a pretty big problem (as fgh pointed out). So, what I will be doing for the family is to install the free version of Logos on each family members computer, and have each register for their own account. The free Logos has a few resources for basic study and the versatility to add some affordable resources if necessary. Eventually, I will purchase a "Home" base package for each of them. What I found to be very attractive and bearable for myself, was the payment plan that Logos offers, which makes the system affordable for even the smallest of budgets. I'm sure, not everyone will need to start with a Scholars Base Package. Within a period of 1 month, I went from the free program, to the Bible Study package, and to the Scholars Silver package, however, at this point, even the Home package would have been a great blessing in study.

I guess the bottom line is that (as I see it) it is not necessary to share the license due to affordability through payment plans. Logos may even have some kind of group discount available for entire churches, ministries, and groups.

I hope this helps.

DMB

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/367627#Comment_367627

I'm well aware of the Logos4 licensing, but I wonder if Proclaim on multiple computers muddies up the water? Again, I'm well aware of L4 and am not questioning Proclaim ... just wondering. The number of users per license even in a church isn't new for other types of software.

Ward Walker

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/367653#Comment_367653

And don't underestimate the issues of a single shared account should you start using FaithLife...it's best to have unique accounts, even within a family--just not very cost affordable.

Bradley Grainger (Logos)

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/367653#Comment_367653

I'm well aware of the Logos4 licensing, but I wonder if Proclaim on multiple computers muddies up the water? Again, I'm well aware of L4 and am not questioning Proclaim ... just wondering. The number of users per license even in a church isn't new for other types of software.

Proclaim has its own, clearly defined, licensing model: http://proclaimonline.com/pricing.aspx

A church with multiple Proclaim users will have each person sign in with their own logos.com account, but join the same Proclaim group; we don't have any licensing system where we encourage you to share your logos.com email and password with another person. (Sharing an account between spouses has already been discussed extensively on this forum, so I will point interested parties to the earlier discussion: http://community.logos.com/forums/p/341/3265.aspx#3265.)

David Ames

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/367792#Comment_367792

(Sharing an account between spouses has already been discussed extensively on this forum, so I will point interested parties to the earlier discussion: http://community.logos.com/forums/p/341/3265.aspx#3265.)

When we read Scripture we are told to read some 20 verses before through 20 verses after.

This forum is not scripture but you might want to read some number of posts before and after the target to get the jest of the thread.

Bradley Grainger (Logos)

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/367805#Comment_367805

When we read Scripture we are told to read some 20 verses before through 20 verses after.

This forum is not scripture but you might want to read some number of posts before and after the target to get the jest of the thread.

My parenthetical comment was to clarify my statement that you should not "share your logos.com email and password with another person". I didn't want to derail this thread any further with my off-topic reply to an off-topic post.

DMB

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/367942#Comment_367942

Bradley ... keep digging. There's China down there somewhere.