This document discusses the importance of having early conversations about licensing for collaborative projects. It provides examples from three projects where discussing licensing early helped address issues around intellectual property ownership and copyright. The key points are: - Discussing licensing early clarifies copyright ownership and conditions of use when collaborators leave a project. - Open licensing allows materials to be shared more openly while still protecting intellectual property through attribution. It avoids awkward later conversations about use and ownership. - The three example projects all accepted open licensing principles after discussions, though one chose a more restrictive license and one a more liberal license than originally proposed.