Permissions, conditions and limitations at a glance
Conditions
- None
Limitations
- LiabilityExpressly states that there is no liability for damages.
- Trademark useExpressly states that no trademark rights are granted.
- Patent useExpressly states that contributors' patent rights are not granted.
- WarrantyExpressly states that no warranty is provided.
Permissions, conditions and limitations are classified using data from choosealicense.com (GitHub, MIT License).
What kind of license is it?
CC0 1.0 is a public domain dedication tool released by Creative Commons (CC) in 2009. Strictly speaking, it is less a license than a waiver. The affirmer permanently waives copyright and related rights, such as neighboring rights and database rights, to the extent permitted by law (Section 2). Where the waiver is legally invalid, it grants an unconditional, royalty-free license instead (Section 3). It is widely used for datasets, documents, icons and example code.
Conditions
None. It does not even require attribution (though in academia citation is recommended as a courtesy).
What to know when using it for code
- Patents and trademarks excluded: Section 4(a) states that no trademark or patent rights held by the affirmer are waived or licensed. For this reason the OSI has not approved CC0 as an open source license (CC withdrew its application in 2012), and since 2022 the Fedora Project no longer allows CC0 for new code (it is still allowed for content).
- The FSF considers CC0 a free license compatible with the GPL and recommends CC0 for releasing works into the public domain.
- CC does not recommend using its other licenses such as BY and SA for software, but states that CC0 can be used for software.
Common misconceptions
- "CC0 is similar to CC BY" — CC BY is a license that requires attribution, while CC0 is a declaration that gives up all conditions.
- "With CC0 there are no patent worries" — As noted above, patents are expressly excluded. If patents are a concern, use a license with an express patent grant such as Apache-2.0.
- "CC0 material may contain personal data" — CC0 only deals with copyright and similar rights. Other rights such as publicity rights and personal data protection remain.
How to apply it
Put the text in LICENSE and state in the README that CC0 applies. CC also describes attaching a short notice to each file (e.g. SPDX-License-Identifier: CC0-1.0). The SPDX identifier is CC0-1.0.
When it fits
It is best suited to material you want anyone to reuse without restriction, such as public datasets, schema and configuration examples, documentation and tutorial code. For software with patent risk, 0BSD or Apache-2.0 may be a safer choice.
Can CC0-1.0 code go into another project?
General verdicts for taking code released under this license and distributing it combined into a project under each license below. See other combinations in the compatibility checker →
| Target project | Verdict | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Proprietary (closed-source) software | Allowed | This license has no notice requirement, so the code can go anywhere. |
| MIT | Allowed | This license has no notice requirement, so the code can go anywhere. |
| Apache-2.0 | Allowed | This license has no notice requirement, so the code can go anywhere. |
| MPL-2.0 | Allowed | This license has no notice requirement, so the code can go anywhere. |
| LGPL-2.1 | Allowed | This license has no notice requirement, so the code can go anywhere. |
| LGPL-3.0 | Allowed | This license has no notice requirement, so the code can go anywhere. |
| GPL-2.0 | Allowed | This license has no notice requirement, so the code can go anywhere. |
| GPL-3.0 | Allowed | This license has no notice requirement, so the code can go anywhere. |
| AGPL-3.0 | Allowed | This license has no notice requirement, so the code can go anywhere. |
The content on this site is general information, not legal advice. For actual distribution, contracts or disputes, consult a lawyer or other qualified professional.