Software licensing fees

With few exceptions you can't rent software. There used to be a lot of licensing agreements where you can put a copy of software on a server, and have a limit on the number of concurrant users - my compnay used to have 25 concurrant licenses of Corel Draw for example. And there have been provisions in the past where you have a desktop and a laptop that you can have two installations. But there are fewer of thses provisions all the time.

But most games software is for purchase only. You have to buy a copy for each computer you want to run it on.

Operating systems are most often sold with computers - upgrades are sold separately - so the gaming centre owns an operating system for their computer if they bought it from most vendors. However they could have upgraded the OS with one CD and passed it on

New anti-theft controls try to make this more difficult, but there are always cracks and workarounds on the net.

If you have more than a suspicion you could call one of the anti-theft hotlines.

James