---
title: "What a licence is: copyright by default, permission by licence"
type: Article
published: 2026-10-04T02:00:00.000Z
url: https://islamicopenfinance.com/blog/license-what-is
source: IslamicOpenFinance
---

# What a licence is: copyright by default, permission by licence

> Code, text and data have an owner from the moment they are created. A licence is how the owner tells everyone else what they may do, and on what conditions.

When someone writes code, an article or a script for a podcast, copyright in most legal systems arises automatically: no registration is needed. The practical effect is simple. Without permission, other people may not copy, modify or distribute the work.

A licence is that permission. The owner states in writing what others may do and what conditions they must meet in return. A licence does not transfer ownership; the author keeps the copyright and grants some of its rights to others.

Three questions are enough to read almost any licence:

- Permissions: commercial use, modification, distribution, private use and sometimes patent use.
- Conditions: for example keeping the copyright notice, stating changes, or publishing source code.
- Limitations: usually a disclaimer of warranty and liability, sometimes no trademark rights.

The Open Source Initiative maintains the Open Source Definition, which sets out the criteria a licence must meet to be called open source, and keeps a list of licences it has approved. The SPDX License List gives each common licence a short, standard identifier.

For teams building financial products this is not theory. Every library added to a codebase brings a licence with it, and that licence decides how the product may be sold, deployed or delivered to a bank. The same applies to fonts, datasets, icons and AI models. This season works through them one at a time.

This is general information, not legal advice.

**Sources:** [Open Source Initiative: The Open Source Definition](https://opensource.org/osd), [Open Source Initiative: Licenses](https://opensource.org/licenses), [SPDX License List](https://spdx.org/licenses/)

**Audio:** listen to [this week's episode](/podcasts/license-what-is), a short conversation on the same topic.

## This week's business calendar: October 4 – October 10, 2026

Generated automatically from the the IslamicOpenFinance calendar: business days, holidays and the T+1 settlement date for each day of the week.

### Week at a glance
- Business days, Saudi Arabia (weekend: Friday and Saturday): **5**
- Business days, United Arab Emirates (weekend: Saturday and Sunday): **5**
- Business days, Bahrain (weekend: Friday and Saturday): **5**
- Business days, Qatar (weekend: Friday and Saturday): **5**
- Business days, Kuwait (weekend: Friday and Saturday): **5**
- Business days, Oman (weekend: Friday and Saturday): **5**
- Business days, Malaysia (Kuala Lumpur) (weekend: Saturday and Sunday): **5**
- Business days, Indonesia (weekend: Saturday and Sunday): **5**
- Business days, Pakistan (weekend: Saturday and Sunday): **5**
- Business days, United Kingdom (England and Wales) (weekend: Saturday and Sunday): **5**
- No month end this week.

### Day by day
| Day | Status | T+1 settlement | Events |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Sunday, October 4, 2026 | Business day | October 5 | — |
| Monday, October 5, 2026 | Business day | October 6 | — |
| Tuesday, October 6, 2026 | Business day | October 7 | — |
| Wednesday, October 7, 2026 | Business day | October 8 | — |
| Thursday, October 8, 2026 | Business day | October 11 | — |
| Friday, October 9, 2026 | Weekend | October 11 | — |
| Saturday, October 10, 2026 | Weekend | October 11 | — |

The same dates are available from the [calendar API](/calendar/), per market.