Traditional Knowledge licenses recognize that Indigenous communities have different access and use expectations in regards to their cultural material and traditional cultural expressions. These different expectations of access and use depend heavily on the material itself and these licenses help identify this material. In particular they are designed to identify and clarify which material has community-specific, gendered and high-level restrictions. This is especially with regards to the circulation of sacred and/or ceremonial material. Additionally, these licenses recognize that use of specific material might require special permission and appropriate acknowledgement of the source community.
These licenses are not copyright licenses and therefore do not change already existing rights and responsibilities of copyright owners and copyright users. These licenses are additional agreements that acknowledge that with some material, special rules governing access and use of that material also exist. It asks all parties to be sensitive to the Indigenous customs and laws that govern this material, and that some material in the archive is sensitive, has restrictions and is not free to be used by anyone at any time.