Managing your copyright

As a copyright owner, you can decide to pass on or share your copyright with others. You can do this by selling or transferring your copyright, or licensing it to other users. The information below explains what you must know if you wish to license your copyright to others.

Licensing your copyright

A licence is a contractual agreement between the copyright owner and the copyright user. A licence:

• sets out what the user can do with a copyrighted work
• relates to one or more of your economic rights from owning copyright
• can be limited in time or any other way

Contractual agreements are likely to be important when you:

• need a partner to help exploit the copyright work
• wish to negotiate the sale or other transfer of the copyright
• wish to agree a licence with someone else who wants to use the copyright work
• would like a collecting society to administer some or all of the economic rights

In some cases, it might be important to get an agreement or contract of confidentiality while negotiating copyright matters, especially if the work has not been published.

Types of copyright licences

Depending on the type of work and owner's needs, different types of copyright licences exist including:

• exclusive licence
• limited use licence
• Creative Commons licence
• collective licences

If you'd like to learn about the assignment of copyright to others, see how to sell or transfer your copyright.