Can you sell 3D prints of CC BY-SA designs?
Selling prints: yes, with the conditions below
CC BY-SA allows selling physical prints with credit. If you share a remixed file, it must carry the same licence.
A plain-English summary of the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0, not legal advice. Read the official licence text.
Like CC BY, plus a copyleft condition: adaptations you share must be released under CC BY-SA too. Seen on: Thingiverse, Printables, MakerWorld.
What CC BY-SA lets you do, requires and forbids
Lets you
- Selling physical prints
- Remixing and modifying the design
Requires
- Credit the designer: model name, designer, a link to the model, and the licence name with a link to it.
- Release any remixed file you share under CC BY-SA.
Forbids
- Sharing a remixed file under a more restrictive licence
- 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-SA (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). [Modified / Not modified].
Remixes and changes
Allowed, but if you share or sell the remixed design file, it must be under CC BY-SA with credit to the original.
CC BY-SA designs MeshNomics is tracking
16 of the top 50 scored designs on the MeshNomics index use CC BY-SA. Licence as recorded from the source; re-check the source page before you sell.
- Raspberry Pi 3 (B/B+), Pi 2 B, and Pi 1 B+ case with VESA mounts and more by 0110-M-Pscore 70
- Curved honeycomb vase by eggnotscore 69
- Parametric pulley - lots of tooth profiles by droftartsscore 69
- XL-RCM 10.0 PIXXY: Pocket drone / FPV quad by 3dxlscore 69
- Gear Bearing by emmettscore 68
- AM8 - Metal Frame for Anet A8 by pheneenyscore 68
- Swiss Army Style SD Holder (Expandable)(Raspberry adaptors) by Dranowebscore 67
- Photon Printer - Micro Laser Engraver by Isoltscore 67
- Jumbo Elephant Cutlery Drainer by aleiovanevcpscore 67
- Customizable Vacuum Tool by Zivbotscore 67
- The Amazing Gyroscopic Cube Gears! by joefescore 67
- Twisted 6-sided Vase Basic by MaakMijnIdeescore 65
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
- Can I sell prints of my remix?
- Yes. The ShareAlike condition applies to sharing the adapted design, not to selling physical prints of it.
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.