Data licensing, in plain English
The terms that matter when your company licenses data or your AI team buys it.
- A license defines rights to use data; it need not transfer ownership.
- SnowRock’s fee and the company’s data payment are separate.
- Agree sample access and intended use before sharing files.
Terms and definitions
14 terms in this glossary.
- Data license
- An agreement giving a buyer specified rights to use data. It does not have to transfer ownership.
- Data owner
- The person or company with authority to decide whether particular data can be licensed.
- Data buyer
- The company paying for rights to use the data. In this service, buyers are AI developers and related teams.
- Dataset
- A collection of data prepared for a defined purpose. It can include documents, tables, images or other formats.
- Training data
- Examples used to teach an AI model patterns or tasks.
- Evaluation data
- Examples used to test how well an AI model performs a task.
- Sample
- A limited selection used to assess whether data meets a buyer’s requirements.
- Permitted use
- What the license allows the buyer to do with the data.
- Exclusivity
- A restriction on licensing the same data to other buyers. Its scope and duration must be agreed.
- De-identification
- Removing or changing identifying information. It requires a defined method and review; removing names alone may not be enough.
- Provenance
- Information about where data came from, how it was created and what rights apply.
- Acceptance criteria
- The checks a delivery must pass under the agreement.
- Introduction fee
- A fee for connecting parties under agreed conditions. SnowRock discloses its buyer-paid fee before the deal.
- Sourcing assignment
- A paid search for companies or data that match a written set of requirements.
Who pays whom
The buyer pays the company for the agreed rights to use its data. SnowRock’s buyer-paid introduction or sourcing fee is separate. Any preparation or technical delivery work must have a named provider and an agreed cost.