School changing legal status

[localzuk]

This is a bit of a hypothetical question, which I'm thinking about after reading the Becta MIS report.

 

My question is - if a school changes status, say to become an Academy, what happens to licenses such as MS Agreements, or Adobe site licenses?

 

Do they transfer to the new entity? Or would the new school need to re-license everything?

 

Obviously, this will depend on the individual license agreement, but I'm thinking more generally, as schools have hundreds of such software packages.

[webman]

IANAL. I remember a lot of educational software refer to "educational institution" or something similar. You are essentially the same institution, so I would think, from a common-sense approach, that it would be "OK".

 

As you said though - individual license agreements do differ (a lot!)

[SpuffMonkey]

We have been assured that everything carries across

[powdarrmonkey]

as schools have hundreds of such software packages.

 

And ergo, hundreds of licensors, all with different ideas of how to squeeze money out of their customers, so you'd have to look at it case-by-case if this ever happens to you.

[GrumbleDook]

It will carry across but it has to be 'novated', as it is an asset the same way that hardware is. Most companies are fine about it and it is just a case of informing people. If it involves any significant admin work (ie for key licensing systems or re-installing) then there may be charges.

[TechMonkey]

The only big change we were told about was if you have SIMS licenses through LEA, then you have to re-license direct with Capita. A rather large chunk of change.