Atebits’ Common-Sense Approach to Licensing

Published on 22nd April, 2009 by Stephen Lewis

Along with what seems like the entire Mac Twitterverse, I’ve just shelled out a few quid for Tweetie, the new Mac Twitter client from Atebits.

It would seem that Atebits’ talent for simplifying complex interactions extends way beyond the user interface, to the traditionally murky waters of software licenses.

They take a refreshingly common-sense approach, as explained in the confirmation email:

The rules are simple, you can use that license key for all your Twitter accounts on as many computers as you (personally) own. Unless you own like 1,000 computers in which case that’s just crazy.

If you don’t have a crazy number of computers, but you do you have any questions or just want to say hi, send an email to support@atebits.com.

The language is friendly and mature, treating the recipient (who just bought the app, let’s not forget) like a reasonable human being, and makes a refreshing change to swathes of “we know you’re just itching to steal our software” legalese.