What Is CC BY 4.0? Creative Commons Attribution Explained

You will see "CC BY 4.0" on music tracks, photos, academic papers, videos, and data sets. It shows up on Wikimedia Commons, on Kevin MacLeod's incompetech.com, on government open data portals, and on academic repositories across Europe and the US.

It means something specific, and getting that specific meaning right matters if you are going to use the work without getting into copyright trouble.

The Short Version

CC BY 4.0 means: you can use, share, remix, adapt, and build on this work for any purpose, including commercial purposes, as long as you credit the creator.

That is it. No payment. No asking permission first. No restrictions on how you adapt it. Just: credit the person who made it.

What the Pieces Mean

CC stands for Creative Commons, the non-profit organisation that created and maintains the license family. Creative Commons licenses are not a single license, they are a suite of six standard licenses (and one public domain dedication, CC0) that give creators a way to express specific permissions without writing a custom legal agreement each time.

BY means "by attribution," the one condition attached to the license. To keep your rights under CC BY, you must give credit to the original creator in the way the license specifies. Without that credit, you are outside the terms and the copyright falls back to the creator.

4.0 is the version. The 4.0 update (released in 2013) is the current international version. It fixed several issues with earlier versions around global enforceability, moral rights handling in different legal systems, and database rights under EU law. Unless you have a specific reason to use an older version, 4.0 is what you want to be looking for and using.

How CC BY 4.0 Differs From Other CC Licenses

Creative Commons offers several variants. Understanding the differences prevents mistakes:

CC0 (no rights reserved): public domain dedication. No credit required, no conditions. The creator has waived all rights. This is the most permissive option.

CC BY 4.0: credit required, otherwise no restrictions. Commercial use fine, modification fine, no need to share derivatives under the same license.

CC BY-SA 4.0 (Attribution-ShareAlike): credit required plus any derivative work must be released under the same or a compatible license. This is the "share-alike" or "copyleft" condition. Wikipedia uses CC BY-SA.

CC BY-NC 4.0 (Attribution-NonCommercial): credit required, plus you cannot use the work for commercial purposes. Using NC music in a monetised YouTube video would violate this license.

CC BY-ND 4.0 (Attribution-NoDerivatives): credit required, plus you cannot distribute modified versions. You can use it as-is but you cannot remix it.

CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 and CC BY-NC-ND 4.0: combinations of the above restrictions.

For creators looking for music and assets to use in monetised content: CC BY 4.0 and CC0 are the safe options. CC BY-NC blocks commercial use, and CC BY-ND blocks remixing (which includes syncing music to video in some interpretations).

What "Correct Attribution" Means Under CC BY

The license requires attribution in a way that is "reasonable to the medium or means you are using." For video content that typically means:

• The name of the creator
• The title of the work
• The source URL (where you found it)
• The license name and a link to the license text

Kevin MacLeod's standard attribution block is a good example of the correct format:

"Track Title" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

This block belongs in the video description on YouTube, in a pinned comment on TikTok, or in an on-screen credits section if your format supports it.

Where You Find CC BY 4.0 Content

Music: Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) has over 2,500 royalty-free tracks under CC BY. FreeMusicArchive.org has a CC BY section. Jamendo hosts many CC BY artists.

Photos: Wikimedia Commons has millions of CC-licensed photos. Many are CC BY or CC BY-SA. Pixabay and Unsplash use their own custom licenses rather than CC, so check carefully.

Video clips: Internet Archive hosts a large amount of CC-licensed video. Wikimedia Commons has some CC video as well.

Sound effects: Freesound.org has a substantial CC BY section alongside CC0 options.

Documents and data: Most academic preprints on open access repositories are CC BY 4.0. EU open data is frequently CC BY 4.0 or national equivalents.

The Practical Rule for Creators

If you are using someone else's creative work in your own content:

1. Check the actual license, not just "royalty free." Royalty free is a distribution model, not a Creative Commons license.
2. If it is CC BY (any version), you need to provide attribution.
3. Write the attribution in the standard format and put it somewhere findable.
4. If it is CC BY-NC, you cannot use it in monetised content without permission.
5. If it is CC BY-ND, be careful about any modification including video sync.

When InkSlop generates a video using music from its library, the attribution block for any CC BY track is automatically included in the video description for YouTube publishing. You do not have to look up the format or remember the license URL. The right credit travels with the asset.

If you want to learn more about how InkSlop handles music attribution in practice, the practical guide to crediting Kevin MacLeod walks through the specifics.