Most software requires acceptance of an end user license agreement (EULA) at the time of installation. Per Operating Policy and Procedure 72.07 and Regents' Rules Chapter 07.12, TTU employees and students, as well as departments and units, do not have authority to sign a EULA on behalf of Texas Tech University. Many "personal", "free", "consumer", and "trial" software packages forbid installation on organization-owned systems, including those owned by Texas Tech University, without a legitimately acquired software license. Software license purchases and all related contract documents are approved and authorized by Procurement Services and the TTU Office of the CIO. In some cases, software packages are licensed at the Texas Tech University System level (i.e., Oracle, Ellucian) for software shared among Texas Tech institutions; other software packages are licensed at the institutional (TTU) level (i.e., Microsoft 365 apps or Adobe software), and some software packages may have been licensed by a department for a few systems or users.

Any software package, installed on a university-owned device, that is not properly licensed through TTUS, TTU, or your department is a violation of copyright laws and TTU policies, and must be removed immediately. For example, Malwarebytes, an anti-malware software package, offers a free consumer version downloaded from their website, and, per their EULA, is not authorized on any institutional systems, TTU-owned systems in our case. In compliance with vendor licensing requirements, please immediately uninstall any Malwarebytes license from TTU-owned systems, unless your area/department has purchased an appropriate license. Additionally, we ask that you review software installed on area/department institutionally-owned systems, and ensure that all software is properly licensed, typically through a TTU software site license, or an area/department purchase.

Instead of Malwarebytes, please install the anti-virus/anti-malware software licensed and provided by TTU for both Windows or macOS, available at no cost. If you have questions about the procurement and contract process for any license, please contact purchasing@ttu.edu.