Licensing your work without giving it away
An exclusive licence needs a signed writing. A non-exclusive one can be a sentence in an email. The difference decides who can sue.
A licence lets someone use your work while you keep ownership. Writing one well means deciding four things: who, what, where and for how long.
Exclusive and non-exclusive
An exclusive licence promises that nobody else, including you, will use the work in that scope. In US law it counts as a transfer of ownership, so it must be in a writing signed by the owner (17 U.S.C. §204). The exclusive licensee can also sue infringers in their own name.
A non-exclusive licence can be oral or implied by conduct, such as sending a client the files they paid for. You can grant the same rights to anyone else.
The four clauses that matter
- Scope: which rights (copy, adapt, distribute, display) and which media.
- Territory: worldwide, or named countries.
- Term: fixed years, or until terminated.
- Payment and attribution: the fee, royalty or credit line you require.
Creative Commons, briefly
Creative Commons offers six standard licences built from four conditions: attribution (BY), share-alike (SA), non-commercial (NC) and no derivatives (ND). CC0 waives rights as far as the law allows. These licences cannot be revoked for copies already distributed, so choose before you publish.
A right you cannot sign away
Authors in the US can terminate most transfers and licences they signed after 1977, during a five-year window that opens 35 years after the grant (section 203). Work made for hire is excluded.
Publish the terms
State your licensing terms and a contact address in one public place. Every company record in our register has a field for both.
This article is general information, not legal advice for your situation.