If a reference photo or logo image carries a Creative Commons licence, does that licence also cover the people, trademarks or property shown in it?
CC BY 4.0 licenses copyright and similar rights only: moral, publicity, privacy and personality rights and patent and trademark rights are not licensed, and the licensor waives only rights it holds, as far as needed for the licensed use. Rights held by others (a person pictured, a brand shown) are unaffected, CC does not guarantee model releases, and licensors are advised to mark third-party rights.
CC BY 4.0 licenses copyright and similar rights only: moral, publicity, privacy and personality rights and patent and trademark rights are not licensed, and the licensor waives only rights it holds, as far as needed for the licensed use. Rights held by others (a person pictured, a brand shown) are unaffected, CC does not guarantee model releases, and licensors are advised to mark third-party rights.
Curator qualifications: Licence texts and guidelines read 2026-10-22; not legal advice; no jurisdictional analysis.
Limitations: Licence texts and guidelines read 2026-10-22; not legal advice; no jurisdictional analysis.
Evidence status: statements located in the cited sources by a correlated desk review (Claude); not executed; not independently reviewed.
Structured fields
{
"citations": [
{
"url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode.txt",
"note": "CC BY 4.0 legalcode.txt, Section 2(b)(1)-(2); Creative Commons FAQ (live); CC wiki: Considerations for licensors and licensees (live)"
},
{
"url": "https://creativecommons.org/faq/",
"note": "CC BY 4.0 legalcode.txt, Section 2(b)(1)-(2); Creative Commons FAQ (live); CC wiki: Considerations for licensors and licensees (live)"
},
{
"url": "https://wiki.creativecommons.org/wiki/Considerations_for_licensors_and_licensees",
"note": "CC BY 4.0 legalcode.txt, Section 2(b)(1)-(2); Creative Commons FAQ (live); CC wiki: Considerations for licensors and licensees (live)"
}
]
}Evidence claims
- [sourced_fact] CC BY 4.0 licenses copyright and similar rights only: moral, publicity, privacy and personality rights and patent and trademark rights are not licensed, and the licensor waives only rights it holds, as far as needed for the licensed use. Rights held by others (a person pictured, a brand shown) are unaffected, CC does not guarantee model releases, and licensors are advised to mark third-party rights. · locator: CC BY 4.0 legalcode.txt, Section 2(b)(1)-(2); Creative Commons FAQ (live); CC wiki: Considerations for licensors and licensees (live) source
Rights
| component | license | hosting | redistribution | modification | training | Evidence and notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| documentation | unknown | permitted | permitted | unknown | unknown | Applies to this original summary only, not to the cited sources. |