Software licensing is a very complex and non-intuitive topic. The difficulty is based on the fact that there are very few physical constraints on transgressions. That is, you can easy break a software license agreement and may not even know you're doing it.
Add to that the fact that the same product may be available under several different licensing schemes and things get messy.
Below is a short summary of some of the licensing models used by different software publishers. Please note that this is general advice only and you should contact Simplicity before making any purchasing decisions.
OEM
Stands for Original Equipment Manufacturer. OEM licensed software is supposed to only come with a new computer, although you can often buy it independently. This is often the cheapest license on the market, but it comes with some nasty conditions. The most important one is that once installed, the software license is valid for that machine only; you can't move it to another computer. In the case of Windows, you're supposed to stick a certificate sticker on the case of the machine. The other conditions is that you usually can't use OEM software to upgrade (say from XP to Vista).
Retail
Buying software off the shelf gets you a nice box, manuals and a more flexible license. Typically retail software lets you move from machine to machine (handy if you buy a new computer) and may even let you use it on more than one computer at once (although not simultaneously). Retail software usually needs to be 'activated', over the Internet or phone. Retail software can cost up to twice as much as OEM.
Volume
Software license tracking is a difficult task for large companies, who don't want to have cupboards full of software packaging to track how many licenses they have. Typically offered by Microsoft, if you have five or more computers in your company, you can apply for a Volume license.
In this case you buy X number of licenses and receive one software install code for your company. For example, if you have 30 computers you may buy 30 licenses for Office 2007, which means you can use 30 instances of Office at once. Conditions for retiring old machines and introducing new ones vary (for example, you can get volume OEM licenses), but this is the preferred model for large companies.
Specific Packages
Adobe Creative Suite
Creative Suite 4 (or CS4) is a parcel of tools used by creators for visual, video and audio material. Adobe products are an industry standard and are generally expensive products - the full version of CS4 is over US$2,000. However, each of the tools can be bought individually. If you only need to use Photoshop, that can be purchased for around US$1,000.
If you're buying multiple licenses, Adobe has two discounting programs. The first is the Transactions License Program, where you earn deeper discounts on bigger orders. The second is the Cumulative Licensing Program, whereby you qualify for a minimum order and enter a 2-year agreement, during which you receive dealer-like discounts.
AutoCAD
AutoCAD, produced by Autodesk is a program used by engineers, designers, architects and others to produce drawings and designs, what a draughtsman would have done pre-AutoCAD. It is an industry standard and known for being expensive to license. A single 'seat' for the 2010 version will cost over Bt200,000, although there is a 'light' version, known as AutoCAD LT, that sells for considerably less.
AutoCAD licenses come in two flavours. There are 'seats', which is the traditional one-computer-one-install and 'network' licenses. If your company has, say, four network AutoCAD licenses, then up to four users can operate AutoCAD on your network at once, with the usage being tracked by a central server. This would be a one-user-many-computers situation.
Although AutoCAD is expensive to license, it is worth doing as Autodesk are ferocious in policing their product and frequently take people to court (and are themselves often sued) to protect their software.
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