When you use other ActiveX controls as the starting point for creating your own controls, you may have to purchase a special run-time license for the original controls. If you do not acquire a run-time license for the original control, your users may find that your control does not work correctly (assuming that it works at all). To understand why this is, we’ll look at how ActiveX controls are licensed, and why you can freely distribute these same controls as part of any Visual Basic applications you have developed.