Content Licensing

Learn how to build to enable users to specify a content licensing license for their Publications.

Content licensing is the process where the owner of creative work grants permission to others to use, share, or reproduce the content under specified conditions. Licenses can be customised to suit particular purposes and may include restrictions on usage, distribution, or modification of the work.

In Lens, content licensing can be included directly in the Publication metadata. This means the terms of how the content can be used are embedded within the Publication itself, providing blockchain-native licensing information that is linked to the Publication and the ownership and transfer of any token minted from it (e.g., Collect NFTs).

The Lens Publication Metadata Standard provides the capability to specify the license for a publication's content.

Lens metadata supports 36 different license choices, ranging from strict to more permissive licenses that allow commercial remixability. Additionally, it's possible to apply different licenses to each media item within the publication metadata.

The following examples demonstrate how to specify licensing for various types of content.

import {  audio,  MediaAudioMimeType,  MetadataLicenseType,} from '@lens-protocol/metadata';
const metadata = audio({  title: 'Great song!',  audio: {    item: 'ar://3jQsSRK9X2w5u2S9rtZkZEW1ceWBrxXQhcW3qS4PmVg',    type: MediaAudioMimeType.MP3,    artist: 'Jane Doe',    cover: 'ar://bNb2ER7LPE9IvmHKJPiddV3Yi3sZIbRFhPE2fpc7X1U',    license: MetadataLicenseType.TBNL_C_ND_NPL_Legal,  },});

The Lens Publication Metadata supports both Creative Commons licenses and Token Bound NFT licenses, a licensing standard native to NFTs.

While the metadata offers a range of licenses to foster innovation and flexibility, the most commonly chosen and comprehensive licenses include:

Creative Commons licenses provide a robust set of public licenses, allowing creators to share their work globally. These standardized and publicly accessible licenses enable creators to distribute their creative works while maintaining specific rights. They offer a flexible framework for granting permissions for various usage types, including commercial or non-commercial use, creation of derivative works, and sharing with appropriate attribution.

The breakdown of Creative Commons licenses is as follows:

Use the table below to understand the permissions and requirements of each Creative Commons license.

Token Bound NFT Licenses provide a native and modular standard licensing system for NFTs, offering a selection of 32 license options. See the full license standard.

These are the key components of the Token Bound NFT Licenses:

Use the table below to understand the permissions and requirements of each Token Bound NFT license.