Licenses explained
Every design on Makers is free to download. The license the maker picks says what you may do after that: print it for yourself, share it, remix it, or sell prints. It is shown on every design page. Here is each one in plain words. When in doubt, ask the maker in the comments.
Own design · personal use
The maker keeps every right and lets you use the design for yourself.
- Download it
- Print it for yourself, your family and friends
- Show your prints, credit the maker
- Keep the maker's name with the design when you show it
- Ask the maker before anything not listed here
- Sell the files or the prints
- Remix, modify and publish it
- Upload it to other sites
CC BY 4.0
The most open choice. Anyone may use the design in any way, commercially too, as long as they credit the maker. Full text.
- Print, share, remix
- Sell prints and remixes
- Use it in your own projects
- Credit the maker by name with a link
- Say if you changed it
- Claim it is your own original
- Suggest the maker endorses you
CC BY-SA 4.0
Like CC BY, with one condition: anything you build on it must be published under the same license, so the remix stays as free as the original. Full text.
- Print, share, remix
- Sell prints and remixes
- Credit the maker
- Publish remixes under CC BY-SA too
- Lock a remix behind a stricter license
CC BY-NC 4.0
Share and remix freely, but no money: neither the files nor the prints may be sold. Full text.
- Print for yourself and as gifts
- Share and remix
- Credit the maker
- Sell prints, files or remixes
- Use it in a commercial product or service
CC BY-ND 4.0
Share it as it is, with credit; changed versions may not be published. Selling unchanged prints is allowed. Full text.
- Print and share the original
- Sell unchanged prints
- Credit the maker
- Keep the design as published
- Publish remixes or modified versions
For makers: which one should I pick?
- Own design · personal use if you want people to print it but keep control of everything else. It is the default and the safest choice.
- CC BY if you want your work to spread as far as possible and do not mind others selling prints.
- CC BY-NC if you like remixes but not other people making money from your work.
- CC BY-ND if you want the design shared exactly as you made it.
- CC BY-SA if you want every remix to stay open.
Creative Commons licenses cannot be revoked for copies people already downloaded, so choose before you publish. You can change the license of a design for the future at any time from its Edit page. Remixing someone else's design is only allowed when its license allows it; credit the original in the listing.
Points, levels and prizes do not depend on the license: a download counts the same under every license.