In a license agreement or through an open license, copyright holders specify how and under what conditions their copyrightedThe German Copyright Act (UrhG) protects certain intellectual creations (works) and services. Works include literary works, photographic, film and musical works, as well as scientific or technical representations such as drawings, plans, maps, sketches, tables and plastic representations (§ 2 UrhG). The artistic, scientific achievements of persons or the investment made, on the other hand, are considered to be services worthy of protection (ancillary copyright).The author is entitled to publish and utilize the work. Read More work may be used and/or exploited by third parties.

Commercial entities, such as publishers, typically enter into license agreements with the copyright holders. When these works are later reused by third parties, they must obtain permission from the rights holder (in this case, the publisher) and may need to pay a licensing fee.

Open licenses, such as Creative Commons LicensesCreative Commons licenses are pre-formulated license agreements created by the non-profit organization Creative Commons, allowing copyright holders to grant public usage rights to their creative works. Once a work under a CC license is used by third parties according to the terms of the license, a contract is established (TUM, 2023, p. 5). Read More, allow free use. When openly licensed research data are used by third parties, “a contract is automatically established between the licensor and the licensee, without any need for contact between them” (TUM, 2023, p. 5).