Obtaining a licence from a copyright owner

If you want to use a work that is under copyright, it is likely that you will need to approach the copyright owner in order to obtain a licence unless one of the exceptions to copyright that may allow you to use a limited amount of the work applies.

Exclusive licence

An exclusive licence could be granted, but remember that this enables the licensee to use the copyright work to the exclusion of all others, including the copyright owner. Any licence agreed can relate to one or more of the economic rights and can also be limited in time or any other way. It is a contractual agreement between the copyright owner and user.

Limited use licence

Often a copyright owner will only give permission for some uses of a work, for example, publication of a photograph in a particular newspaper, and if you want to use the work in any other way, for example, by publishing the photograph in a magazine, you will need to seek further permission.

Creative commons licence

Some people prefer to allow limited access to their work without charge. One way to do this is by using a Creative Commons Licence .

Collecting Societies

In some situations, copyright owners find it difficult to license use of their works by themselves and so they have formed organisations, called collecting societies or collective licensing bodies.  These act collectively on their behalf to give permissions, grant licences and collect royalties.  Further information on collecting societies is available.