What is CC0? Public-domain assets explained
CC0 is the licence you want when you need an asset with no strings attached. It shows up constantly around free texture and model libraries — but “free” and “CC0” are not the same thing, and the difference decides whether you can legally ship an asset in a commercial product.
The short answer
CC0 (“Creative Commons Zero”) is a public-domain dedication: the creator waives every copyright interest they can. You may use, modify, redistribute, and sell work built on a CC0 asset, commercially, with no attribution and no fee. It is the most permissive option available — strictly more permissive than “free to download”, royalty-free, or CC-BY, all of which attach conditions.
What CC0 actually permits
Under CC0 the author gives up their copyright to the fullest extent the law allows, placing the work as close to the public domain as a licence can. In practice that means you can download it, alter it, bundle it into a game or film, resell the result, and never credit anyone.
There is no non-commercial clause, no share-alike obligation that forces your own work open, and no attribution requirement. Those are the three conditions that most often make an otherwise “free” asset unusable in a commercial pipeline, and CC0 has none of them.
CC0 vs “free” vs royalty-free
“Free” describes a price, not a licence. Plenty of free downloads are personal-use only, or forbid redistribution, or require a credit line in your titles. Free tells you what you paid, never what you may do.
“Royalty-free” means you pay once instead of per use — it is a payment model, and the underlying licence still restricts you, typically banning redistribution of the asset itself.
CC-BY is genuinely open but conditional: you must credit the author wherever the work appears, which is awkward inside a shipped game build. CC0 removes even that.
Where attribution still makes sense
CC0 does not require credit, but crediting remains good practice and costs nothing. Libraries that release CC0 work are usually funded by patrons or sponsors, and visible credit is part of what sustains them.
One thing CC0 never grants is authorship. Redistributing a CC0 texture is fine; claiming you made it is not, and passing off a whole library as your own work is a reputational problem rather than a legal one.
Checking before you ship
Confirm the licence at the source rather than trusting a mirror — assets get re-hosted constantly and the licence note is the first thing lost in the copy.
Watch for embedded third-party content too. A CC0 model can still contain a logo, a trademark, or a recognisable person, and trademark and personality rights survive a copyright waiver. The geometry may be public domain while the brand stamped on it is not.
Frequently asked questions
Can I use CC0 textures in a commercial game?
Yes. CC0 places no restriction on commercial use, and you can ship, sell, and profit from work built on CC0 assets without paying or crediting anyone.
Do I have to credit the author of a CC0 asset?
No — attribution is not required under CC0. Many artists still credit the source as a courtesy, and it helps keep the libraries funded, but you are under no obligation.
Is CC0 the same as public domain?
Effectively, yes. CC0 is a dedication that waives the creator's copyright as fully as their jurisdiction permits, plus a fallback licence for countries where rights cannot be fully waived.
Can I resell a CC0 texture on its own?
Legally, yes — CC0 permits redistribution and sale. What you cannot do is claim you authored it, and reselling someone else's library unchanged is widely considered bad practice even where it is lawful.
Every material and model in the Mixos library is CC0 — 2,600+ PBR textures and 340+ models, free to download and ship commercially.