Can you sell 3D prints of CC0 designs?
Selling prints: yes, with the conditions below
CC0 and public-domain designs can be sold with no licence conditions.
A plain-English summary of the CC0 / Public Domain, not legal advice. Read the official licence text.
The designer has waived their rights as far as the law allows. Crediting them is still good practice. Seen on: Thingiverse, Printables.
What CC0 lets you do, requires and forbids
Lets you
- Selling prints
- Remixing
- Sharing under any terms
Requires
- Nothing under the licence. Credit is courteous, not required.
Forbids
- Nothing under the licence (trademarks and other rights can still apply)
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 CC0 (https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/). [Modified / Not modified].
Remixes and changes
Allowed with no conditions.
CC0 designs MeshNomics is tracking
2 of the top 50 scored designs on the MeshNomics index use CC0. Licence as recorded from the source; re-check the source page before you sell.
- Spiral Vase by Yllonnocescore 64
- Touring Bike Business Card by CyberCyclistscore 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
- Does CC0 cover a model of a famous character?
- No. The designer can only waive rights they hold. Characters, logos and brands belong to their owners.
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.