Can you sell 3D prints of CC BY-ND designs?
Selling prints: yes, unmodified only
CC BY-ND allows selling prints of the design exactly as published, with credit. Modified versions are not allowed to be shared.
A plain-English summary of the Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0, not legal advice. Read the official licence text.
Commercial use is allowed, but you may not distribute adapted versions of the design. Seen on: Thingiverse, Printables, MakerWorld.
What CC BY-ND lets you do, requires and forbids
Lets you
- Selling prints of the unmodified design
- Changing file format (for example STL to 3MF)
Requires
- Credit the designer: model name, designer, a link to the model, and the licence name with a link to it.
Forbids
- Distributing a modified version
- Implying endorsement by the designer
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-ND (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/). [Modified / Not modified].
Remixes and changes
Not allowed to be shared. Whether a rescale or colour change counts as an adaptation can be a grey area; ask the designer if it matters to your product.
CC BY-ND designs MeshNomics is tracking
2 of the top 50 scored designs on the MeshNomics index use CC BY-ND. Licence as recorded from the source; re-check the source page before you sell.
- Test your 3D printer! v3 by ctrlVscore 65
- Test your 3D printer! by ctrlVscore 64
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
- Is printing in a different colour a modification?
- Generally not a change to the design itself, but Creative Commons does not rule on edge cases. When in doubt, ask the designer in writing.
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.