Proprietary retail licensing
- Grants a single-user perpetual license tied to the purchaser’s account
- Defines specific usage rights (e.g., personal reading only, no redistribution)
- Often non-transferable and bound by end-user license agreements (EULAs)
- May include geographic or device restrictions specified by the publisher
- Pricing and promotional discounts are set by the rights holder
Platform-specific DRM licensing
- Enforced by systems like Adobe DRM, Amazon Kindle DRM or Apple FairPlay
- Requires use of approved apps or devices for decryption and reading
- Restricts sharing by limiting device activations or simultaneous reads
- License checks occur online/offline per platform’s authentication rules
- Prevents file tampering, copying or printing beyond allowed limits
Creative Commons licensing
- Offers a suite of licenses (e.g., CC BY, CC BY-NC, CC BY-NC-ND) with varying permissions
- Allows authors to permit sharing, adaptation, and commercial use under chosen terms
- Requires attribution and may forbid derivatives or commercial exploitation
- Facilitates wider distribution and educational use without individual permissions
- Incompatible with DRM—content must remain freely accessible
Public domain and open licensing
- Applies when copyright has expired or is explicitly waived by the author
- No restrictions on copying, modifying, or distributing the work
- Common sources include Project Gutenberg and government publications
- Authors can dedicate new works to the public domain via declarations (e.g., CC0)
- Encourages remixing, translation, and academic reproduction without fees
Subscription and lending rights
- Subscription models grant time-limited access to a library of titles
- Library e-lending licenses specify loan durations and concurrent user limits
- Controlled Digital Lending mimics physical lending through licensed copies
- Renewal, termination, and usage terms are governed by platform agreements
- Enables institutions to offer e-books without per-user purchase fees