All the mods are created by their respective owners. Because of the Minecraft EULA, the mod permissions are essentially worthless. Mods are user created content designed specifically to be free and open to the public. You can't steal something that's designed to be free.
Permissions & Licensing is defined as getting permission from a content creator or business to use their products to make a profit under their name. By doing so you then pay them royalty fees. Since I am doing this solely for fun, and not going to make any money off of it, I do not need any permissions and licensing whatsoever.