# Free Licenses Explained Like a Friend Would

You grabbed a free font / printable / ebook / audio pack. Great! But "free"
doesn't always mean "do anything you want." This guide explains the licenses
you'll actually run into — no law degree required.

> Friendly disclaimer: this is plain-English education, not legal advice.
> When a project really matters, read the license page and (if needed) ask the
> creator directly. Creators usually love being asked.

## The one question to ask

For every freebie ask yourself: **"What am I not allowed to do with this?"**

Usually the answer is one of four things:

| You want to... | Often allowed? | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|
| Use it yourself (planner, phone wallpaper, personal book) | Almost always yes | Almost nothing |
| Use it in something you sell (book cover, Etsy listing) | Sometimes | "personal use only" licenses |
| Edit / remix it (crop, recolor, trace) | Sometimes | "no derivatives" clauses |
| Redistribute the raw file itself | Rarely | Almost every license forbids this |

## The licenses you'll actually meet

### MIT
**One sentence:** "Take it, use it, change it, sell it — even inside paid products — just keep my name in the file."
**Watch out for:** Nothing much. Keep the copyright notice if you redistribute the code. Don't use the original author's name in your marketing.

### CC0 / "Public Domain"
**One sentence:** "The creator gave up their rights. This is yours to use for anything, no questions, no credit needed."
**Watch out for:** Almost nothing. CC0 is the friendliest license there is. Some "public domain" tags on sites are guesses rather than official CC0 — if the stakes are high, confirm.

### CC BY 4.0 (Creative Commons Attribution)
**One sentence:** "Use it for anything, even commercially — just give credit somewhere reasonable."
**Watch out for:** The credit line. Copy the attribution format from the creator's page when they provide one. It doesn't have to be huge — a footer, caption, or About page usually works.

### CC BY-SA 4.0 (Attribution-ShareAlike)
**One sentence:** "Credit me, and if you remix my work, your remix must carry this same license too."
**Watch out for:** The "share alike" part can be viral. If your final product is a design or document, it may inherit this license. For commercial projects from many sources, mixing SA content can get complicated fast.

### CC BY-NC 4.0 (Attribution-NonCommercial)
**One sentence:** "Credit me, but don't use this for anything commercial."
**Watch out for:** "Commercial" is broader than you think — a book you sell, a paid course, or a monetized YouTube channel all count. Great for personal planners and free content.

### CC BY-ND 4.0 (NoDerivatives)
**One sentence:** "Share it as-is with credit, but don't change it."
**Watch out for:** Even cropping or re-encoding can get murky here. If you love editing things, skip ND-licensed files.

### OFL 1.1 (SIL Open Font License)
**One sentence:** "A font you can use — embed, print, sell books with — and even modify, as long as it stays under OFL and you don't sell the font itself."
**Watch out for:** Very little. This is the standard for Google Fonts. Selling copies of the font file alone is off-limits; using it in anything you make is fine.

### "Free for personal use" (the classic daFont-style license)
**One sentence:** "Nice for your own projects. Anything commercial? Buy the designer's commercial license."
**Watch out for:** This is where expensive mistakes happen. A font for a book cover or a product listing counts as commercial. The commercial license is usually cheap — cheaper than a takedown letter.

### Marketplace site licenses (Freepik, Pixabay, Flaticon, Canva free tier...)
**One sentence:** "These are terms-of-service agreements, not a single simple license."
**Watch out for:** Each site's rules differ and can change. Common bullets:
- Some allow commercial use but **forbid reselling or redistributing the file itself**.
- Some require or encourage **attribution** (an "article credit" usually counts for free tier content).
- Some limit free-tier content to a **maximum number per product** (Freepik is a frequent example).
- Tutorials and templates you grab may generate from **restricted stock libraries** — check whether the final result inherits rights you'd rather not fight over.

### "Name required / link required" licenses
**One sentence:** "Everything's allowed, you just owe credit in a specific form."
**Watch out for:** The exact form — a name, a link, a banner. Keep the requirement with your record of the download.

## Quick red flags

Save yourself headaches — skip or double-check anything with:

- **"No commercial use"** when you have commercial plans.
- **No license page at all.** "Free" with no terms is not the same as CC0.
- **"Contact for permissions."** Usually worth it — many creators say yes, and then you're safe.
- **AI-training fine print** on stock sites, if submitting your own content matters to you.

## Four rights badges, one habit

The catalog page tags each download with one of four badges:

- **commercial-ok** — safe for things you sell (still glance at the license page).
- **share-and-adapt** — Creative Commons-style; sharing and remixing allowed, usually with credit.
- **personal-use-only** — your own projects only.
- **check-me** — unclear; read the license page before doing anything more than personal use.

**The habit that keeps you out of trouble:** the moment you download something, open it in your catalog and fill in `license_type`, `license_url`, and `usage_rights`. Future-you will thank present-you.

## Credits summary (for reuse)

This page describes commonly seen license types (MIT, CC0, CC BY / BY-SA / BY-NC / BY-ND, OFL 1.1, marketplace site terms) in plain English. License names are trademarks of their respective owners; this guide is educational and is not legal advice.

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*Plain-English AI and author tools like this come from Asdale Dynamics, LLC — dylanasdale.github.io.*