Per-seat license

A Per-seat license is a software license based on the number of individual users who have access to the software. For example 50-user per-seat license would means that up to 50 individually named users can access the program. Per seat licensing is administered by providing user-level security to the directory containing the program. The alternative is a Concurrent user license, based on the number of simultaneous users --regardless of which individuals they are-- accessing the program. It typically deals with software running in the server where users connect via the network. For example, in a 50-user concurrent use license, after 50 users are logged on to the program, the 51st user is blocked. When any one of the first 50 log off, the next person can log on. Concurrent licensing can be managed by the application itself or via independent software metering tools.

Per-seat licensing is common for products used by specialised professionals in industrial settings. In addition to computer programming, typical examples can be chemists ["Finding an oasis in the desert of bioinformatics" Jeffrey Thomas and David K. Stone [http://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S1478538203023278 BIOSILICO v. 1, Issue 2, 2 May 2003, p. 56-58] ] , molecular biologists ["Gene expression databases and data mining " [http://www.biotechniques.com/microarrays/articles/030306.pdf Biotechniques] 2003] , geographers, ["Implementing functions for spatial statistical analysis using the R language" [http://www.springerlink.com/index/CJRPUMB78JUYH54W.pdf Journal of Geographical Systems] Volume 2, Number 3 / September, 2000 p. 307-317 ] , or designers ["Data Security for Web-Based CAD" Stephen Knol, Scott Hauck [http://doi.ieeecomputersociety.org/10.1109/DAC.1998.10030 Proc. of the Design Automation Conference, 1998] pp. 788-793]

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