Licence laundering or license laundering occurs when a creative work under copyright is copied by another party, who then replaces the original licence with a different one. This party then illegitimately distributes the work with the new licence
The online repository Wikimedia Commons hosts media and other files that are freely licenced,[1]:422 such as those that are in the public domain, which may be redistributed without consent or royalty payment to the author.[1]:424 Files uploaded to the repository that have restrictive licencing terms, such as those prohibiting the creation of derivative works or making commercial use of the file, are deleted.

The image hosting and video hosting website Flickr is a popular source of files for Wikimedia Commons.[2]:268 Its users upload content they create to Flickr's servers, assigning a licence for each work or accepting a default copyright licence.[3]:94 It was found that some Flickr users upload content that is not their own creation, and for which they have no authority or licence grant to do so. Some of these works are erroneously assigned a free licence, apparently permitting their unrestricted distribution, including uploading the content to Wikimedia Commons. The practice has come to be known as "Flickr washing" on Wikimedia Commons, as it is the most common site from which licence laundered files are uploaded.[4]

Licence laundering of media and related files is common on image hosting providers such as Flickr or Picasa, and video hosting providers such as YouTube