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Crown Copyright & Licensing

About Crown Copyright

Permissions / Licenses

Types of Licenses

The terms, non-exclusive, sole, and exclusive define the types of licenses that are typically granted in Canada. They are described in more detail below.

The term non-exclusive means that there is no limit to the number of licenses that can be granted. A non-exclusive license is the most common type of license issued by the Government of Canada in licensing works protected under Crown copyright.

When a government of Canada work is licensed on a non-exclusive basis it means that the Crown reserves the copyright and grants rights to the licensee for a specific purpose, duration and territory.

With a sole license the Government of Canada reserves its rights to make use of and copy its own work, but agrees not to license any other person than the sole licensee.

The last type of license is an exclusive license. This means that the person receiving the permission/license will be the only one with the rights to use the work. This even prevents the person who grants the permission from reproducing his own work. This is seen as a disguised assignment, abandonment or sale of copyright.

For Government of Canada works the term «exclusive» may be used as long as it does not qualify the entire license agreement, and as long as the author department is aware that it is also preventing itself from using the work in areas where it has granted exclusivity, e.g. a language, territory, duration, medium, or a combination of these. Exclusive licenses for the purpose of licensing out Crown copyrighted works are rarely granted by the Government of Canada.