Software as a service agreement is a legal contract between a service provider and end users who subscribe to the service built on a software platform and hosted in the cloud. The subscribers to the software being offered service on a subscription basis often pay a monthly or annual fee to use the software. The advent of cloud-based computing allowed businesses to develop software and make it available without subscribers needing to download or install any software on their servers or computers. Instead of licensing software, cloud base companies allow end users to log in to their software. There are huge advantages to cloud-based software services, including the fact that the software development company can make real-time changes and upgrades, which instantly become available to subscribers. SaaS business models also brought an explosion of subscription-based models, which lowered the cost of software access and allowed technology businesses to spread costs across larger groups of users, thus lowering the cost of access.
Examples of SaaS companies include Salesforce, Quickbooks Online, OpenSea, Hootsuite, and many others. Artificial intelligence companies such as ChatGPT are offering access to their AI on a SaaS model. This allows the AI company to preclude access to the source code, the algorithms, or the database driving the AI while allowing users to use machine learning functionality as a service.
Technically, no. Some SaaS businesses provide copyrighted works in addition to the service offered through their software. Those SaaS companies must address the service contract and the copyright license in the subscriber agreement. A SaaS lawyer who understands the difference between service contracts and copyright license agreements will know how to identify services and copyrighted works to cover both issues.