When you post anything on Coursera, including forum posts, peer-reviewed assignments, or uploaded files, you give Coursera the right to use, copy, share, and modify that content globally and for free, including by sharing it with other companies.
This analysis describes what Coursera's agreement states, permits, or reserves. It does not constitute a legal determination about enforceability. Regulatory applicability and practical outcomes may vary by jurisdiction, enforcement context, and individual circumstances. Read our methodology
This license is broad and sublicensable, meaning Coursera can pass rights over your submitted content to third parties such as content delivery partners or technology vendors, and the agreement does not clearly define expiration terms tied to account deletion.
Interpretive note: The agreement does not explicitly state whether the license terminates upon account closure or content deletion, creating ambiguity about the duration of rights granted.
Content you submit to Coursera, including course assignments visible to peers, discussion posts, and uploaded materials, may be used, reproduced, and redistributed by Coursera and its sublicensees under a royalty-free license that does not require additional permission from you.
How other platforms handle this
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You grant Zoom a perpetual, worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free, sublicensable, and transferable license to use, reproduce, distribute, prepare derivative works of, display, and perform the content you submit, post, or otherwise make available through the Services, solely to the extent necessary ...
By submitting, posting or displaying Content on or through the Services, you give Miro a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free license (with the right to sublicense) to use, copy, reproduce, process, adapt, modify, publish, transmit, display and distribute such Content in any and all media or distr...
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"We don't own content you submit to us, but we need certain rights to it so that we can make our Services work the way they're supposed to. When you submit content to the Services, you grant us a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free license (with the right to sublicense) to use, copy, reproduce, process, adapt, modify, publish, transmit, display, and distribute such content in any and all media or distribution methods now known or later developed.— Excerpt from Coursera's Coursera Terms of Use
REGULATORY LANDSCAPE: This provision engages GDPR Article 6 for EU users to the extent submitted content contains personal data, as the license grant may constitute processing requiring a lawful basis beyond contractual necessity. FERPA may apply where content submitted by students through institutional arrangements constitutes education records. The FTC has authority if the scope of this license is materially inconsistent with representations made to users at the time of submission. GOVERNANCE EXPOSURE: Medium. The sublicensable, royalty-free, worldwide scope is broad but common in platform terms of service. The key compliance risk is whether users have adequate notice of the sublicensing right and whether the license scope conflicts with institutional IP ownership policies in campus or enterprise deployments. JURISDICTION FLAGS: EU/EEA: Where submitted content contains personal data, the license grant intersects with GDPR data minimization and purpose limitation principles. Institutional deployments in jurisdictions with strong employee or student IP ownership laws (e.g., Germany, France) may face conflicts between these terms and local law. CONTRACT AND VENDOR IMPLICATIONS: Enterprise customers should assess whether employees retain IP ownership under their employment agreements and whether submitting work product to Coursera under these terms creates unintended IP licensing consequences. Campus licensees should review whether student assignment submissions constitute education records subject to FERPA restrictions on disclosure. COMPLIANCE CONSIDERATIONS: Legal teams should determine whether the license persists after account termination or content deletion, as the document does not explicitly address this. A data mapping exercise should capture what categories of user-submitted content are subject to this license and which third parties may receive sublicensed access.
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This license is broad and sublicensable, meaning Coursera can pass rights over your submitted content to third parties such as content delivery partners or technology vendors, and the agreement does not clearly define expiration terms tied to account deletion.
Content you submit to Coursera, including course assignments visible to peers, discussion posts, and uploaded materials, may be used, reproduced, and redistributed by Coursera and its sublicensees under a royalty-free license that does not require additional permission from you.
ConductAtlas has identified this type of provision across 23 platforms. See the full comparison.
No. ConductAtlas is an independent monitoring service. We are not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Coursera.