Non-commercial models

Will there be any support for uploading models without commercial licenses? Or will those be permanently wiped from the internet?

Hi @Rectus_SA . Fab will support two licenses: Creative Commons Attribution and Standard.

For me to be able to answer your question a bit better, could you share a bit more about your particular concern? For example, do you have models on Sketchfab right now that are licensed as CC BY-NC?

I have models licensed both by CC BY-NC as well as non-downloadable ones.

I feel like a big use of Sketchfab is as a model gallery, rather than a store. There doesn’t seem to be any other sites that can replicate that functionality. In particular the model inspector has been a great learning tool, being able to see exactly how a model is constructed.

1 Like

Will CC0 be allowed?

Hi @KimLaughton . Fab will only offer CC BY and Standard licenses.

It will not offer CC0, CC BY-NC (Non-Commercial), CC BY-SA (ShareAlike), or CC BY-ND (No Derivatives).

@Rectus_SA we hope to be able to share more information soon about Sketchfab’s gallery feature. It’s always been my favorite part of Sketchfab so I get where you’re coming from. :slight_smile:

Thanks, is there any reason for this? It doesn’t seem like offering other CC options would require any extra workload on the part of the site (other than a dropdown menu). If I want to upload a model and don’t need any credit when it is used why would that be a problem?

Hi @KimLaughton - sorry it’s taken me a few days to get back to you.

Over 90% of the licensable models on Sketchfab are available under the standard CC BY license. The current Fab license setup will allow for free distribution, with broad usage rights, either under CC BY or Standard licenses (the Standard doesn’t require creator attribution). That said, post-Fab launch we will be working toward further improving Fab’s licensing setup to better suit creators’ needs.

We’re happy for any feedback you might have regarding how you prefer to distribute content, what matters to you in terms of usage rights, and what doesn’t. :slight_smile:

Thanks for the response. One of the most interesting parts of Sketchfab for me is the museum collections (generally 3D scans of the physical artefacts they own). These seem to be often CC0 (for eg University of Dundee Museum Collections (@uod_museums) - Sketchfab or Cleveland Museum of Art (@clevelandart) - Sketchfab). This license makes a lot of sense for a museum and allows the models they offer to be freely used.

CC BY is generally not usable in practice - if I make an image with a number of 3D models (say for an album cover…) there’s no way to actually credit the source of those models and they are often such a minor part of the image that it wouldn’t make sense to do so anyway. In most cases I think people will simply ignore the attribution requirement, but it is nice when a model is officially CC0.

2 Likes