Copyright and licensing of scientific data are complex and have several implications for data sharing, their reuse, and wide dissemination of scientific research to all the stakeholders. It is, hence, not unusual to expect the physicians or authors to give away or deal with their copyrights without thoroughly understanding their use, regional laws, and implications.1 To begin with, it is essential to understand certain terminology and the difference between a licence and a waiver. A licence is a legal instrument that enables a copyright holder to enable a second party to use their contents with specific terms and restrictions. A waiver is a legal instrument whereby a copyright holder gives up his rights rather than asserting them.2, 3 Attribution requirement is where a licensor or the original source is given full credit when the work is displayed, distributed, changed, or reused. A ‘copyleft’ requirement asserts that any work reproduced or derived from a licensed work must be released only under the same licence and not others.3

Moral and property rights protect a scientific article. A moral right protects the author and is inalienable, whereas property rights or their derivatives can be transferred.1 In the simplest form, in traditional subscription publishing, the publisher typically retains some or all the property copyrights. Open access publishing is different because here, the authors retain some or all the copyrights.