Copyrights | How do you correctly indicate the origin of third-party designs?

“VEND – the totally printed candy dispenser” by Mr_MegaTronic is licensed under the Creative Commons – Attribution License.

Today we want to focus on the attribution requirements of CC licenses and explain the best way to implement them for Thingiverse designs.

Attribution is a requirement of any CC license. We believe that this attribution is incredibly important. Because those who invested energy and time to create and make available all the great objects on Thingiverse deserve recognition. But what should such a credit look like?

According to the Creative Commons Attribution License (3.0), unless the licensor requires otherwise, a grantor must respect all copyrights and give reasonable attribution to the medium or its use: (i) the author’s name (or pseudonym, if usable), (ii) the title of the work, if known, and (iii) the universal resource identifier (URI) if reasonable and practicable. The CC licenses therefore take into account the medium used by the licensee and the proportionality of the attribution.

The language of the current license is more understandable than before. To find out all the nuances, you should read the current license.

Creative Commons has a helpful resource that explains best practices for attribution. With these practices in mind, we would like to show you some examples of how to cite sources and how Thingiverse simplifies this for you.

How to find licenses on Thingiverse

The first step before sharing or downloading designs from Thingiverse is to find and read the item’s license. To make it easier to see the license, each item page shows the license in the right column under the “Thing Files” tab.

As you can see, the information under which CC license the “Pocket T-Rex Skull” is licensed is displayed. In this case, MakerBot has decided to license this file under the “Attribution-ShareAlike” license. The license is displayed as icons and below them is a link to the license text.

Remixes

If you go back to the T-Rex page, you will see the following link in the right-hand column.

The “Pocket T-Rex” object is a remix of the “T-Rex Skull”, which can be found under the link. (Note also that we explained in the “Summary section” how the “Pocket T-Rex” differs from the “T-Rex Skull”). This is another example of how we try to simplify source citation. We make it easy for users to see the connections between shared content on Thingiverse.

How can you link your object file to the source file as a remix? It’s very simple. Click on the “This is a Remix” button on the “Upload a Thing” page. This will open a search box that allows you to search for the source file. If a file on Thingiverse is not intended for further development or use, this will be indicated. You are only entitled to further development if this has been permitted by the licensor. You can also upload a remix directly via the source article by clicking on “Remix It” in the top right-hand corner.

Let’s say you have found an object that you like and want to use. How do you specify the source in different contexts?

Online Postings

If you publish an object file from Thingiverse on a blog or social media platform, you should comply with the attribution obligation. You should therefore include the name of the author or their pseudonym, the title of the work and a link to the object on Thingiverse as well as a link to the specified CC license including a link to it. Here is an example of what this could look like:

The T-Rex Skull from Curriculum is licensed under the Creative Commons – Attribution – Share Alike License.

Physical models

3D printing makes the issue of attribution a little more complex. For example, what happens if someone downloads a file from Thingiverse and prints it out on a 3D printer? In such cases, how should one – proportionally – give credit? As mentioned before, the CC license underlines that the medium is decisive.

For example, if you would like to present the “Pocket T-Rex Skull” at an exhibition or other event, you should also show the 2D printable source information that Thingiverse offers. This can be found on the object page (“Thing Details”) at the bottom of the right-hand column under “Give a Shout Out”. Here is an example of the printable shout out.

 

MakerBot and Thingiverse are constantly trying to further develop the platform and pass on information to the community. We will keep you informed about these developments.

Contribution in English from makerbot.com/blog