You missed the part where a license is a type of contract... A copyright license is a contract, wherein the copyright owner agrees to allow a third party the u

You missed the part where a license is a type of contract... A copyright license is a contract, wherein the copyright owner agrees to allow a third party the use of their copyrighted material in exchange for [X]. X might be money, or it might be an agreement to limit how the copyrighted material is used. There isn't another document or anything that says "License to Use [Copyrighted Material]", This means that losing the "license" is the same as saying you no longer have an agreement allowing you to use the copyrighted material.