Copyright License Agreements
If you have taken the required steps to copyright your works, you inevitably will have an opportunity to earn royalties off them. If you want to take advantage of the opportunity, you will need to be familiar with copyright license agreements.
Copyright License Agreement
A copyright license agreement sets out the conditions under which the other party can use your content. In legal language, you are called the “licensor” with the other party being the “licensee.” The purpose of the agreement is to set forth the terms under which you will grant the other person the right to use, publish or reuse your work in exchange for a royalty. Let’s take a closer look at main parts of the licensing agreement.
Specific Rights Granted
The agreement needs to set out exactly what copyrighted material can be used. If you have copyrighted articles, are you granting a right to use all of your articles or only certain ones? It is recommended that the agreement set out a description of the exact materials being covered.
Once you agree upon the exact materials, you need to determine if there will be any restrictions on how the material can be used. Can the material be used on the Internet or will it be restricted to a certain niche, such as manuals or collections of materials?
An extremely important issue is whether the agreement grants exclusive or non-exclusive rights. In English, this simply defines whether the licensor can grant similar rights to other parties. The grant of exclusive licenses should require a much larger royalty rate since you are essentially betting the third party will be successful.
Licensing Royalties
In exchange for your copyrighted work, the third party is going to make royalty payments to you. The particular amount of the royalty is dependent upon the nature of your work. Issues to consider include:
- Will you be paid a flat amount or percentage of sales?
- If a percentage, will it be figured from gross revenues or something less?
- When will you be paid?
- What rights will you have to audit the books of the third party to determine you are getting the full royalty?
In some situations, you may decide to forgo a royalty payment. This usually occurs when the third party will use the materials in manner that produces massive publicity for you. For example, many professionals seek to right columns for publications as a marketing tool. Often, they will not charge the publication for the material because the resulting publicity carries enough of a benefit.
In Closing
If you are considering licensing copyrighted content, keep the above in mind. Since such agreements are difficult to break, hiring an attorney is worth the expense.
Further Information
If you would like to know more licensing, there are many online forums, such as The Law Diary, that may be able to provide further information.
