Software Licences

Lesson Instructions

Watch and follow the YouTube video, the lesson contains three parts:

Key Information and content - all you need to do here is watch and listen. We recommend you take some notes for this one!
Learning activity - You are to complete the true or false activity on open source and proprietary software.
Consolidation - these are past exam question and are for deliberate practice to check your understanding.

Software Licences Full Lesson Video.mp4

Task - True / False Activity

Software licences activity

Task - Exam Questions - Deliberate Practice

Exam Questions - Web

Mark Scheme

Question 1 (a)

Source code not made available / only compiled code is published
Licence restricts the copying / modifying / distribution of the software

The mention of a licence is not sufficient. Candidate should state that the licence restricts copying / modifying / distributing.

"Closed source" is not enough because it just gives an alternative term for "proprietary" without a description of what we mean by "closed"

Question 1 (b)

e.g.
Stops competing companies copying their software (or hardware / ebooks)
...and producing similar/better products.
Ensures compatibility (with the e-book reader)...
...as they can ensure that no modifications have been made

(mark points in pairs)

The first mark is for identifying a relevant advantage to the manufacturer, and the second for details expanding this point.

Accept answers about preventing reverse engineering the company's product or piracy of the company's software or e-books (e.g. DRM) as referring to the first set of answers.

Question 2 (a)

1 mark per bullet to max 2

e.g.
Other people can improve on the software / add features / maintain
gain a wider ranger of consumers / users
...therefore gain reputation
use for advertising
...gain income from adverts

Do not award mark simply for definition of what open source software is.

Question 2 (b)

1 mark per bullet to max 2

e.g.

Can sell // receive income
Program can be copyrighted
...retain control over source code / modifications
...retain control over distribution

Do not award mark simply for definition of what proprietary software is.