The older Creative Commons Attribution license. The same deal as 4.0, with a stricter credit form and national ported versions.
On this page
What it does
Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 is the generation before 4.0, and it still sits on plenty of older icon sets, documentation art and legacy assets. The permissions are the same: commercial use, changes, remixes and redistribution, with credit as the only condition. Three practical differences matter. Version 3.0 is more prescriptive about the form of the credit, it exists as ported national texts rather than one international text, and it gives you no window to fix a breach.
Details
The reason to care about the version number is what happens when somebody gets it wrong. Version 4.0 added a 30-day window to fix a breach and have your rights reinstated. Version 3.0 has no such window, so the rights end at the breach and come back only if the creator agrees. The port matters too: CC BY 3.0 DE and CC BY 3.0 US are separate texts, so read the one the asset actually names. Version 4.0 also handles database rights in its own wording, which 3.0 leaves to the local port.
Pros
- Easy to drop into a closed, paid product. Procurement has seen this family hundreds of times.
- No copyleft on your own files. You keep your source private.
Cons
- The notice duty is easy to miss in a desktop, mobile, or container build. A web page is not a substitute for notices inside the artifact.
- Buyers who want an express patent grant will ask you to prefer Apache-2.0 over a short MIT-style text.
What it allows and requires
Choose a category to see the full grant in one scannable list. Permissions show what the license allows, limits show what it withholds, and obligations show the conditions your release process must satisfy.
Permissions
Commercial use
Commercial use is allowed. CC-BY and OFL do not ban selling a product that includes the work.
Modify
You may adapt the work, within the license's share-alike or non-commercial limits if those apply.
Distribute
You may share copies of the original and, where allowed, of your adaptations.
Limits
Hold liable
The authors disclaim warranty. Recipients cannot hold them liable for damages arising from the software, except where law forbids that disclaimer.
Use trademark
The license is not a trademark license. Names, logos and product marks stay with their owners unless a separate grant says otherwise.
Obligations
Give credit
Give the credit the license asks for, in a reasonable manner, without implying endorsement.
What CC-BY-3.0 requires when you ship
When a copy that includes CC-BY-3.0 code leaves your company, the grant is broad and the paperwork is easy to miss. Distribution here means an installer, a mobile binary, a container image, or an SDK another team embeds. Work this list against the artifact you actually hand over, not against a README. A hosted service that never gives out a copy still belongs on the record, but the notice duty does not fire until a copy exists.
You meet the condition when the credit carries the creator's name, the title of the work, the URI the licensor specified if there is one, the license, and a note that you changed it if you did.
You place the credit correctly when a user can reasonably find it from the asset in the medium you are using. A reachable credits page is the usual answer.
You meet the prominence rule when your product credits other contributors, because section 4(b) of the unported text asks for a credit at least as prominent.
You read the right document when the asset names a ported version, because CC BY 3.0 DE and CC BY 3.0 US are separate texts.
You stay inside the grant when you do not suggest that the creator endorses you or your product.
The duties named in CC-BY-3.0
The license text itself is short. These are the named conditions. They follow the code, including files you vendor into your own repository and transitive packages in the lockfile.
Give credit
Give the credit the license asks for, in a reasonable manner, without implying endorsement.
Things to be aware of
- Teams treat 3.0 and 4.0 as one license. There is no cure window in 3.0, so a missing credit ends the rights until the creator restores them.
- Teams read the international 4.0 text and apply it to a ported 3.0 asset. Open the port the asset names, because the wording differs.
- Teams credit an old asset once and never look again after a redesign. Check that the credit still exists once the screen it lived on was rebuilt.
- Teams label a Stack Overflow snippet as CC BY. Content on Stack Overflow is share-alike, so it belongs under the CC BY-SA guide and not here.
What the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 does not do
Search results often flatten Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 into a slogan. These are the usual misreads. CC-BY-3.0 is a grant with conditions, not a permission to skip the paperwork below.
- CC BY 3.0 does not require you to publish your own source. Combining it with closed code is the point of the grant.
- CC BY 3.0 does not mean "no obligations." The copyright line and license text still have to travel with copies you hand to other people.
- It is not a patent license unless the text says so. MIT-family grants say nothing about patents.
How CC-BY-3.0 differs from nearby licenses
These licenses are often confused with CC-BY-3.0, but their release duties differ. Each row summarizes what the license requires when you ship. Open the linked page for the full checklist.
- CC-BY-3.0
- The older Creative Commons Attribution license. The same deal as 4.0, with a stricter credit form and national ported versions.
- CC-BY-4.0
- Credit the creator and you may use the work commercially. The credit may sit anywhere a user can reasonably find it.
- CC-BY-SA-4.0
- Use it commercially, but anything you build on it stays under the same license. This is where Stack Overflow snippets bite.
Common questions about Creative Commons Attribution 3.0
Answers to common questions about what Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 requires, when its duties apply, and what evidence belongs with a release.
What is the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0?
Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 is the generation before 4.0, and it still sits on plenty of older icon sets, documentation art and legacy assets. The permissions are the same: commercial use, changes, remixes and redistribution, with credit as the only condition. Three practical differences matter. Version 3.0 is more prescriptive about the form of the credit, it exists as ported national texts rather than one international text, and it gives you no window to fix a breach.
What does CC-BY-3.0 require when you ship a product?
You meet the condition when the credit carries the creator's name, the title of the work, the URI the licensor specified if there is one, the license, and a note that you changed it if you did. You place the credit correctly when a user can reasonably find it from the asset in the medium you are using. A reachable credits page is the usual answer. You meet the prominence rule when your product credits other contributors, because section 4(b) of the unported text asks for a credit at least as prominent. You read the right document when the asset names a ported version, because CC BY 3.0 DE and CC BY 3.0 US are separate texts. You stay inside the grant when you do not suggest that the creator endorses you or your product.
Does CC-BY-3.0 require me to open my own source?
It is not a patent license unless the text says so. MIT-family grants say nothing about patents.
How do I attribute CC-BY-3.0 in a product I ship?
Attribution for CC-BY-3.0 means the copyright line and the license text travel with every copy a recipient actually gets. That can be an about screen, a licenses file inside the installer, or a notice in the container image. A public page helps a buyer audit the inventory. It does not replace notices inside the artifact. If you copied files into your own repository, the header on those files still has to stay.
Is a website notice enough for CC-BY-3.0?
No. CC-BY-3.0 talks about copies. A public attestation page is the honest list for procurement. The condition is met when the notices sit in the material you hand over. Put them in the installer, the about screen, or a licenses file inside the binary, then keep the same texts on the page.
Do transitive CC-BY-3.0 dependencies count?
Yes. The condition follows the code, not the package you chose by name. If the lockfile pulled in CC-BY-3.0 transitively and you distribute that tree, those notices travel too. Listing only direct dependencies is how teams miss the duty.
How is CC-BY-3.0 different from Creative Commons Attribution 4.0?
CC-BY-3.0 asks this: The older Creative Commons Attribution license. The same deal as 4.0, with a stricter credit form and national ported versions. Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 asks this: Credit the creator and you may use the work commercially. The credit may sit anywhere a user can reasonably find it. Open the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 page for what that license requires when you ship. Do not treat the SPDX ids as interchangeable because the short names look similar.
Where do I record CC-BY-3.0 for a buyer?
SourceTrust raises the attribution item for any identifier starting with CC-BY, in every deployment context, so a 3.0 asset behaves on the checklist exactly like a 4.0 one. The product does not distinguish the two versions, and it does not read the ported text for you. What it does is store the license text it fetched from the package, put the item in front of a person, and hold publishing until that person confirms it.
Where do I record CC-BY-3.0 for a buyer?
SourceTrust raises the attribution item for any identifier starting with CC-BY, in every deployment context, so a 3.0 asset behaves on the checklist exactly like a 4.0 one. The product does not distinguish the two versions, and it does not read the ported text for you.
What it does is store the license text it fetched from the package, put the item in front of a person, and hold publishing until that person confirms it. Read /docs/reviewing-component for the review flow.
See also
The hub is the pillar for this cluster. Sibling licenses are the other spokes. Product FAQ links explain how SourceTrust records the duty, not the license text itself.
Practical guidance for procurement review, not legal advice. Confirm high-stakes use with counsel.