Licensing Your Work: Rights and Boundaries

​A casual conversation + info session for visual artists
Part 1 of a 2-part series

​Licensing, copyright, ownership, assignment—these words get thrown around a lot. But what do they actually mean for your creative work, your income, and your ability to control where your work ends up?

​This first session is your chance to learn, share, and build language for protecting your creative work, before we take the conversation to industry professionals in Part 2.

​Join us for a relaxed, artist-centred conversation with guest lawyers Lotus Menezes and Jessica Commanda. We’ll demystify how licensing works, how to start the conversation with clients or organizations, and how to respond when your work is used without your consent.

​Through real examples and an open Q&A, we hope to cover:

• ​Licensing vs. ownership vs. assignment, and why it matters

• ​How to set limits on what you send to clients

• ​Enforcing payment when your work appears in unexpected places

• ​Clearance: when to ask, how to respond

• ​Negotiating time limits, and usage rights

• ​Building language and confidence to advocate for yourself
  
  

​Who’s it For
• Visual artists, designers, photographers, illustrators
• Creatives who want to better understand their rights
• Anyone curious about licensing as a tool for financial stability

​What to Expect
• A beginner-friendly legal primer
• Space to share your own licensing experiences
• Time for questions specific to your practice
• Collective insight to shape Part 2, our conversation with industry gatekeepers who license work