Licensed software

CERN licenses software for CERN staff and visitors for use at CERN. Most of CERN licences can be used by CERN staff on laptops. For other products the CERN's Software Licence Office is available to assist in purchasing software for users at CERN.

As defined in Operational Circular Nr. 5, "Rules for Using CERN Computing Facilities", users shall respect the proprietary rights related to CERN computing facilities, including software copyrights. Infringement of this obligation may constitute a breach of contracts concluded by CERN with outside suppliers of computers, networks, software and services. The user concerned shall be liable for damage resulting from any infringement of the circular.

We do not in any case license software for visitors for use on their laptops at their home institute. If they add licensed software while at CERN, they are morally bound and legally obliged to remove it when they leave CERN.

This general rule needs to be checked against the specific licences in question (e.g., whether additional use on portables is permitted, "geographic conditions" -- running on a CERN machine while physically at CERN, etc.).

Software Licence Office

Software license agreements are specific to each product.  A good starting point for such information is to search for the product name when signed in to the Service Portal (http://cern.ch/service-portal).

General questions on software licensing at CERN should be to the software licence officer (SLO).

The SLO is available to assist in purchasing software for users at CERN.

Simple orders for licences, especially where only a single end-user or single group is involved, should be directed to IPT-PI. Cases where a purchase may be shared by different groups or where some complicated negotiations may be involved to obtain better conditions for CERN may be referred to the SLO, either directly or via IPT-PI.

Microsoft

CERN has concluded a site-wide licence with Microsoft for use of the most common Microsoft products such as the different versions of Windows, Office applications and Visual Studio components. You may find the conditions that cover their use at CERN in the following Knowledge Base articles:

  • KB0008993 for Microsoft Windows
  • KB0008994 for Microsoft Office, Visio, Project productivity software and Visual Studio

The IT Department operates a number of software licence servers. These are used to give validated access to licensed products where the licence is limited in number or scope, for example to users on the CERN site only.

Software Licence Servers

The IT department operates a number of software licence servers (operational status of which can be viewed under "Engineering Software Services" in the Service Availability Overview). These are used to give validated access to licensed products where the licence is limited in number or scope, for example to users on the CERN site only. There is also a catalogue of licensed engineering software products with additional information and how to obtain access.

Software and cloud licence ordering process

Please see Software and cloud licence ordering process