What is a license?

Let's say you created a fabulous intellectual property (e.g., book, poem, song, drawing, etc.). As a copyright owner, if you wish, you can give permission to someone to use your work. This permission from the copyright owner is often called a license.

People who want to use your copyrighted work will have to obtain your permission (or get your consent) to use it. Obtaining permission is called licensing.

A license basically grants permissions, but sometimes it states restrictions as well. It specifies what can and cannot be done with a work.

In short,

Copyright = (a form of) intellectual ownership

License = permission or consent from the copyright owner to use the copyrighted work

Licensing = obtaining permission or consent from the copyright owner to use the copyrighted work

Think of it this way: in order to allow others to use your stuff, you need to own the stuff (if it’s not your car, you can’t - or shouldn’t- allow someone else to drive it). You need to be a copyright owner to give permission to someone. Therefore, behind all licensed works, there are copyright owners who’ve granted permission.

These concepts will help us better understand what comes in the next modules.

This content is drawn from:

The United States Copyright Office, Copyright.gov, the public domain.
Copyright and Fair Use, Stanford University Libraries, CC BY NC