Copyright Licensing
Summary: You can license your copyrighted material to others to use, and charge a fee for that if you like. You can make an outright assignment of all of your rights in a copyrighted work, or you can assign the rights to a limited portion of your copyrighted work. A copyright license, like any other license, can be exclusive or non-exclusive, and may include the rights over the original work or the right to create a derivative work (like the creation of a movie from a book).
As a copyright holder, you have the right to transfer or license those rights to a third party via an assignment (a transfer of all the rights) or a license (a transfer of some of your rights.) For example, if you want to allow other people to copy and distribute your new course on underwater basket weaving, but you don’t want to publish it yourself, you can assign your copyright to another person who will publish your book. This is like a sale of any other piece of personal property, where money changes hands and the seller gives up control of how the assigned property is used in the future.
A license is a transfer of less than all the rights to the copyrighted property. The copyright owner still owns the property, and has the right to control how the property is used through the license agreement with the license holder. For example, if you wrote and published a book on underwater basket weaving, you can license the right to a movie company to produce a movie based on the book. This does not, however, allow the license holder to start printing and selling copies of the original work, which is still the property of the original owner. A license under the copyright laws allows the licensee to do some things permitted by the license agreement but prevents them from exercising all the control over the copyrighted material that an owner of the copyright would have.
Bottom Line: Copyright is a personal property right just like any other, and can be transferred or licensed just like any other. The license to use your copyright can be a source of additional income for the copyright holder, and you should seek professional legal help when drafting a copyright license.