# Data license

URL: https://sellmydatatoai.net/glossary/data-license

A data license is a contract in which the owner of a dataset permits another party to use it for defined purposes while keeping ownership of it.

A data license is a contract that gives a buyer permission to use a dataset on stated terms while the seller keeps ownership of it. In AI deals the license sets what the buyer may do (train, fine-tune or evaluate models), for how long, in which territories and whether the rights are exclusive.

Under US copyright law an exclusive license is a transfer of copyright ownership and a nonexclusive license is not, according to [17 USC 101](https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/17/101). Only a transfer needs a signed writing under [17 USC 204(a)](https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/17/204).

## What does an AI data license need to cover?

An AI data license needs to cover more than a standard data agreement, because a trained model cannot easily forget what it learned. Nixon Peabody's October 2026 alert on buying AI training data lists the points buyers test:

- What is in the dataset
- Whether the seller has the right to transfer it for AI use
- Whether sensitive material can be removed without destroying its value
- What the buyer may do with derived assets such as annotations, embeddings, fine-tuned models and weights
- Who bears the risk through warranties, indemnities, caps and holdbacks

Our [licensing agreement checklist](https://sellmydatatoai.net/guides/ai-data-licensing-agreement-checklist) walks through each clause, and [AI data licensing explained](https://sellmydatatoai.net/guides/ai-data-licensing-explained) compares a license with an outright sale or a [revenue share](https://sellmydatatoai.net/glossary/revenue-share). Take independent legal advice before you sign.