Company records licensing: UK, US, Canada and Australia

UK

Last checked: 15 November 2026

Sometimes. A UK company may license records where it holds the necessary rights and authority, but copyright is only one part of the review. Third-party material, contracts, confidentiality, personal data and any overseas transfer need separate consideration.

US

Last checked: 15 November 2026

Sometimes. A company may license material it owns or is authorised to license, but holding a file does not establish that authority. Copyright, contracts, confidentiality, trade secrets, personal information and state or sector rules can apply to different parts of the same archive.

Canada

Last checked: 15 November 2026

Sometimes. The company needs the rights and authority for the material and must separately address personal information, confidentiality and existing agreements. Federal privacy law is not the whole map: provincial and sector rules may also matter.

Australia

Last checked: 15 November 2026

Sometimes. An Australian company may license material where it owns the necessary rights or has authority, but the records must be reviewed individually. Copyright, fair dealing, contracts, confidentiality and the Privacy Act's scope and Australian Privacy Principles can all affect the proposal.

UK

Section 3 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 defines literary works to include tables, compilations and databases, as well as written, spoken or sung works. Copyright in a literary, dramatic or musical work requires the work to be recorded in writing or otherwise.

• Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, s 3 — literary works and recording

US

Section 102 protects original works of authorship fixed in a tangible medium and lists literary works among the covered categories. Reports, manuals, messages and other written material may contain protected expression. Section 102(b) excludes ideas, procedures, processes, systems, methods of operation, concepts, principles and discoveries from that protection.

• Copyright Act, 17 USC § 102 — subject matter and scope
• Copyright Act, 17 USC § 103 — compilations and derivative works

Canada

Section 3(1) of the Copyright Act gives the copyright owner the sole right to produce or reproduce a work, or any substantial part of it, in any material form. It also covers specified rights including publication of an unpublished work and communication to the public by telecommunication.

• Copyright Act, s 3 — copyright in works
• Copyright Act, s 2 — definitions including literary work

Australia

Section 31 of the Copyright Act 1968 describes exclusive rights for original works. For literary, dramatic and musical works these include reproduction in a material form, publication, public performance, communication to the public and adaptation, subject to the Act.

• Copyright Act 1968, ss 10, 31 and 32 — current compilation

UK

Section 16 lists restricted acts including copying, issuing copies to the public, communication to the public and making an adaptation. Preparing and transferring a licensed collection can therefore involve more than the act of signing an agreement.

• CDPA 1988, s 16 — acts restricted by copyright
• CDPA 1988, s 11 — first ownership and employee works
• CDPA 1988, s 90 — assignments and exclusive licences

US

Section 106 gives the copyright owner exclusive rights that include reproduction, preparation of derivative works and distribution. Copying records into a dataset, transforming them and supplying them to a buyer can raise different questions from merely storing an internal backup.

• Copyright Act, 17 USC § 106 — exclusive rights
• Copyright Act, 17 USC § 101 — work-made-for-hire definition
• Copyright Act, 17 USC § 201 — initial ownership
• Copyright Act, 17 USC § 202 — copyright versus the material object

Canada

Section 13(1) begins with the author as first owner. Section 13(3) addresses work made in the course of employment under a contract of service or apprenticeship, generally making the employer first owner in the absence of an agreement to the contrary, with a specific newspaper and periodical reservation.

• Copyright Act, s 13 — ownership, employment, assignments and licences

Australia

Section 35(2) starts with the author as owner. Section 35(6) addresses specified works made under a contract of service or apprenticeship, while section 35 also contains special rules and allows specified ownership provisions to be excluded or modified by agreement.

• Copyright Act 1968, ss 35 and 196 — ownership, assignments and licences

UK

Section 29A permits a person with lawful access to make a copy for computational analysis for the sole purpose of non-commercial research, with a sufficient acknowledgement unless that is impossible for practical or other reasons. The provision also restricts transferring the copy and using it for another purpose without the copyright owner's authorisation.

• CDPA 1988, s 29A — copies for text and data analysis for non-commercial research

US

Section 107 identifies purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship and research, then requires consideration of the statutory factors. Those factors include the purpose and character of the use, the nature of the work, the amount and substantiality used, and the effect on the potential market or value.

• Copyright Act, 17 USC § 107 — fair use and its four factors

Canada

Section 29 states that fair dealing for research, private study, education, parody or satire does not infringe copyright. The purpose is only part of the analysis: the dealing must also be fair. Other fair-dealing provisions have their own purposes and conditions.

• Copyright Act, s 29 — research, private study and other listed purposes
• Copyright Act, ss 29.1 and 29.2 — criticism, review and news reporting

Australia

Section 40 addresses fair dealing for research or study. Its factors include the purpose and character of the dealing, the nature of the work, the possibility of obtaining the work commercially within a reasonable time, the effect on the potential market or value, and the amount and substantiality copied.

• Copyright Act 1968, ss 36 and 40 — infringement and research or study fair dealing

UK

UK GDPR Article 5 requires lawfulness, fairness and transparency, purpose limitation, data minimisation, accuracy, storage limitation, security and accountability. Article 6 requires at least one lawful basis for processing. Consent is one possible basis, not the only one; the correct basis depends on the actual processing.

• UK GDPR, Article 5 — processing principles
• UK GDPR, Article 6 — lawfulness of processing
• UK GDPR, Article 9 — special categories of personal data
• Data Protection Act 2018 — current legal text

US

Do not treat copyright ownership as permission to disclose personal information. Identify the people concerned, the original collection purpose, notices and consent, the proposed recipient and any employment, health, financial or other sector context.

• Federal Trade Commission Act, 15 USC § 45 — unfair or deceptive practices
• California Civil Code § 1798.100 — official state privacy text

Canada

PIPEDA section 4(1) applies Part 1 to organisations for personal information collected, used or disclosed in the course of commercial activities, and to specified employee or applicant information connected with a federal work, undertaking or business. The scope is not identical for every employee record in every organisation.

• PIPEDA, s 4 — application to commercial activities and federal works
• PIPEDA, s 5 — compliance and appropriate purposes

Australia

The Privacy Act 1988 applies to APP entities, with definitions and exclusions that require their own review. Sections 6C and 6D address organisations and small business operators. Start by establishing whether the entity and the act or practice are covered rather than assuming either full coverage or a small-business exemption.

• Privacy Act 1988, ss 6C, 6D and 7B — current compilation

UK

The current Article 44A, inserted with effect from 5 February 2026, states that a controller or processor may transfer personal data to a third country or international organisation only when its conditions are met and the transfer complies with the rest of the UK GDPR.

• UK GDPR, Article 44A — current general principles for transfers
• UK GDPR, Article 46 — appropriate safeguards

US

Company records can contain confidential business information and material governed by non-disclosure, customer, employment or platform agreements. The proposed licence cannot safely be read in isolation from those earlier promises and access conditions.

• 18 USC § 1839 — statutory trade-secret definitions

Canada

Québec's Act respecting the protection of personal information in the private sector is separate provincial legislation covering personal information collected, held, used or communicated in the course of carrying on an enterprise, subject to its own scope and exceptions. Organisations with a Québec connection should include that Act in their review rather than treating PIPEDA as the only possible text. Other provincial and sector regimes may also need review.

• Québec, Act respecting the protection of personal information in the private sector — current text
• PIPEDA, Schedule 1, clause 4.1.3 — third-party processing

Australia

APP 8.1 generally requires reasonable steps before disclosure to an overseas recipient to ensure that the recipient does not breach the APPs other than APP 1, subject to the exceptions in APP 8. The note also points to potential accountability under section 16C. Identify where the buyer and its processors are located and any onward access.

• Privacy Act 1988, Schedule 1, APPs 8 and 11 — overseas disclosure and security
• Privacy Act 1988, s 16C — overseas recipient acts or practices

UK

Record exactly which materials and rights are covered, the permitted uses, exclusivity, territory, duration, onward recipients, security, retention and end-of-licence treatment. Existing confidentiality, client and platform terms remain relevant even where the company owns copyright.

• CDPA 1988, s 90 — writing and signature for assignments and exclusive licences

US

A review should identify the records covered, the rights granted, permitted uses, exclusivity, territory, term, recipients, sublicensing, security, retention and what happens when the arrangement ends. Section 204(a) requires a signed writing for a transfer of copyright ownership other than by operation of law, and notes that an exclusive licence is a transfer of ownership. That provision should not be misread as describing every non-exclusive arrangement.

• Copyright Act, 17 USC § 204 — execution of transfers of copyright ownership

Canada

The agreement should identify the records, rights, permitted uses, exclusivity, territory, duration, recipients, onward licensing, safeguards, retention and end-of-licence treatment. Existing confidentiality, customer, employment and platform terms need to be reviewed alongside copyright and privacy law.

• Copyright Act, s 13(4) — scope and written form of assignments and grants

Australia

Define the records, rights, permitted uses, exclusivity, territory, term, recipients, sublicensing, safeguards, retention and end-of-licence arrangements. Review confidentiality, customer, employment and platform commitments alongside the Copyright Act and Privacy Act rather than treating a signature as resolving them.

• Copyright Act 1968, s 196 — limited assignments, writing and successors