Use it commercially, but anything you build on it stays under the same license. This is where Stack Overflow snippets bite.
On this page
What it does
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 is copyleft for creative works: you may use the work commercially, and anything you adapt from it has to carry the same license. Copyleft means the license requires your version to stay under those terms instead of becoming proprietary. It covers Wikipedia text, Wikimedia media, community icon sets and diagrams, and Stack Overflow answers, code snippets included, which have been on version 4.0 since 2018. The duty attaches to Adapted Material, the license's term for a work built on the original.
Details
Unchanged use is the easy case. Put the image in your interface, credit the creator, and nothing else follows. Placing a work next to your own content is usually a collection rather than an adaptation. The risk lives entirely on the modification axis. Recolour an icon set to match your brand, redraw a diagram, or paste a Stack Overflow snippet into your source, and you have Adapted Material that has to be offered under CC BY-SA 4.0. A plain crop may or may not clear that bar, because Creative Commons ties adaptation to new creative input. That is a licensing decision about your own product, not a piece of paperwork.
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.
Same license
Adapted Material you share must go out under CC BY-SA 4.0 or a Creative Commons compatible license, not a more restrictive wrap.
What CC-BY-SA-4.0 requires when you ship
When you distribute a binary that includes CC-BY-SA-4.0 code, notice still travels with the copy, and the corresponding source has to be available under the same license. Internal use without a copy leaving the company is a different situation. The list below is the shipping work: what a recipient of that binary can demand, and what you record so a buyer can see it.
You are covered for unchanged use when you credit the creator and keep the copyright notice, the license notice and the link, somewhere a user can reasonably find.
You stay in a collection when you place the work alongside your own material without changing it, which does not trigger share-alike.
You handle Adapted Material when you release your changed version under CC BY-SA 4.0, or under a license Creative Commons lists as compatible.
You keep the GPL route open when you fold the material into a GPLv3 work, which Creative Commons allows in that direction only.
You stay inside the grant when you add no technical measure that stops a recipient doing what the license permits.
The duties named in CC-BY-SA-4.0
Notice still travels with the copy. On top of that, CC-BY-SA-4.0 names a source duty. These are the conditions in the text. The how-to above is when they become real work.
Give credit
Give the credit the license asks for, in a reasonable manner, without implying endorsement.
Same license
Adapted Material you share must go out under CC BY-SA 4.0 or a Creative Commons compatible license, not a more restrictive wrap.
Things to be aware of
- Teams paste a Stack Overflow answer into the codebase. The site's content is share-alike and code snippets are covered, so it is not a free copy.
- Teams recolour a CC BY-SA icon set to match the brand and ship it as proprietary art. The recoloured set is Adapted Material and keeps the license.
- Teams read Creative Commons as meaning no conditions. This member of the family is copyleft, and it is the one that reaches into your own work.
- Teams assume compatibility with GPLv3 runs both ways. It runs one way only, into the GPLv3 work, and there is no route back.
What the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 does not do
Search results often flatten Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 into a slogan. These are the usual misreads. CC-BY-SA-4.0 is a grant with conditions, not a permission to skip the paperwork below.
- CC BY-SA 4.0 does not leave Adapted Material under your own terms. Share-alike attaches to a work built on the original.
- It does not treat an unchanged collection as an adaptation. Placing the work next to your own content, without changing it, does not trigger share-alike.
- It is not a two-way GPL bridge. Compatibility with GPLv3 runs into a GPLv3 work only, with no route back.
How CC-BY-SA-4.0 differs from nearby licenses
These licenses are often confused with CC-BY-SA-4.0, 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-SA-4.0
- Use it commercially, but anything you build on it stays under the same license. This is where Stack Overflow snippets bite.
- 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-NC-SA-4.0
- Non-commercial use only, and adaptations stay under the same NC-SA terms. A paid product cannot rely on this grant.
- GPL-3.0-only
- GPL-3.0 keeps the source duty on distributed binaries and adds a patent grant, an anti-lockdown rule for consumer devices, and a cure period.
Common questions about Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0
Answers to common questions about what Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 requires, when its duties apply, and what evidence belongs with a release.
What is the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0?
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 is copyleft for creative works: you may use the work commercially, and anything you adapt from it has to carry the same license. Copyleft means the license requires your version to stay under those terms instead of becoming proprietary. It covers Wikipedia text, Wikimedia media, community icon sets and diagrams, and Stack Overflow answers, code snippets included, which have been on version 4.0 since 2018. The duty attaches to Adapted Material, the license's term for a work built on the original.
What does CC-BY-SA-4.0 require when you ship a product?
You are covered for unchanged use when you credit the creator and keep the copyright notice, the license notice and the link, somewhere a user can reasonably find. You stay in a collection when you place the work alongside your own material without changing it, which does not trigger share-alike. You handle Adapted Material when you release your changed version under CC BY-SA 4.0, or under a license Creative Commons lists as compatible. You keep the GPL route open when you fold the material into a GPLv3 work, which Creative Commons allows in that direction only. You stay inside the grant when you add no technical measure that stops a recipient doing what the license permits.
Does hosting a product that uses CC-BY-SA-4.0 trigger extra duties?
Hosting alone usually does not trigger the source duty for CC-BY-SA-4.0. Shipping a binary, a container, or an on-prem build does. Notice still travels with any copy you hand over.
Can I keep my application closed if I use CC-BY-SA-4.0?
CC-BY-SA-4.0 is library-scoped copyleft. Your application can stay closed if recipients can replace the library with their own build. Static linking makes that expensive. The library itself still ships with corresponding source and notices. Confirm the linking story on the component, then record it.
What is corresponding source for CC-BY-SA-4.0?
Corresponding source is the source a recipient needs to build and run the same binary, including scripts and interface files the license names. Hosting a repository URL can be an offer. The offer has to match what you actually shipped. SourceTrust records that a person on your team confirmed the offer. It does not publish your source and does not host a mirror.
How is CC-BY-SA-4.0 different from Creative Commons Attribution 4.0?
CC-BY-SA-4.0 asks this: Use it commercially, but anything you build on it stays under the same license. This is where Stack Overflow snippets bite. 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-SA-4.0 for a buyer?
The catalog marks CC-BY-SA-4.0 as copyleft, so two items can appear. The attribution item appears in every deployment context, and a source offer item appears when the project ships binaries or uses a mixed context. On a hosted SaaS project you see the attribution item only. Neither is ticked for you: a person on your team confirms each one, and publishing stays blocked until every applicable item is confirmed. SourceTrust does not judge whether your asset is an adaptation.
Where do I record CC-BY-SA-4.0 for a buyer?
The catalog marks CC-BY-SA-4.0 as copyleft, so two items can appear. The attribution item appears in every deployment context, and a source offer item appears when the project ships binaries or uses a mixed context.
On a hosted SaaS project you see the attribution item only. Neither is ticked for you: a person on your team confirms each one, and publishing stays blocked until every applicable item is confirmed.
SourceTrust does not judge whether your asset is an adaptation. 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.