Can you sell 3D prints of CC BY designs?
Selling prints: yes, with the conditions below
CC BY allows commercial use, including selling physical prints, as long as you credit the designer.
A plain-English summary of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0, not legal advice. Read the official licence text.
The most permissive Creative Commons licence that still asks for credit. You may print, sell, remix and share, with attribution. Seen on: Thingiverse, Printables, MakerWorld.
What CC BY lets you do, requires and forbids
Lets you
- Selling physical prints
- Remixing and modifying the design
- Sharing the file or your remix
Requires
- Credit the designer: model name, designer, a link to the model, and the licence name with a link to it.
- Say whether you modified the design.
Forbids
- Implying the designer endorses your shop or product
- Adding terms that stop others using the design under the licence
How to credit the designer on a product you sell
Put a credit line in your listing description, product page or a packaging insert:
"[Model name]" by [designer] ([link to model]), licensed under CC BY (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). [Modified / Not modified].
Remixes and changes
Allowed. You may sell prints of a modified version and choose your own licence for your changes, as long as you still credit the original.
CC BY designs MeshNomics is tracking
23 of the top 50 scored designs on the MeshNomics index use CC BY. Licence as recorded from the source; re-check the source page before you sell.
- Drawing Robot - Arduino Uno + CNC Shield + GRBL by henryarnoldscore 76
- HyperCube Evolution by SCOTT_3Dscore 75
- Parametric Hinge by rohingoslingscore 69
- GASB One - RC Flying wing fully printed (ONLY 9 PIECES GLUELESS) by Carletto73score 69
- Ender 3 Cable Chain by Jwhiskey3Dscore 68
- 2020 / Ender 3 Filament Guide by Filboytscore 68
- Chasis 1/10 Adaptable - DKS-Basic by dukedoksscore 68
- Better 3D Printable Bearing by BoomZilla1score 68
- Baby Groot Air Plant Planter by JuliaTruchsessscore 67
- Wooden cat by pmoewsscore 67
- Venus Box by Prot0typ1calscore 66
- Ender 3 V2 V-Slot Covers by RedSodascore 66
What the licence doesn't cover
- Characters, logos and brands. A designer can only license rights they own.
- Marketplace rules. Etsy requires items made with 3D printers, lasers or CNC machines to be based on your own original design, even with a commercial licence. eBay, your own store and local markets have their own rules.
- Product safety. A licence says nothing about whether a part is food-safe, child-safe or load-bearing.
Questions
- Do I need to credit the designer on the printed part itself?
- No. Creative Commons allows credit in any reasonable manner for the medium, such as your listing description or a packaging insert.
- Can the designer take the licence back?
- Not for copies already received under CC BY. Keep a dated screenshot of the licence when you download a file you plan to sell.
Find designs you're allowed to sell
MeshNomics stores a normalised licence and a commercial-use flag for every indexed design, so you can filter to sellable designs and sort by demand. See plans, read the full guide to selling Thingiverse, Printables and MakerWorld prints, or browse niches.