The Toasty Guide to Mixed Sources
rating: +28+x

Note: This advice is very general and is not meant as legal advice; it is intended solely as a guideline for using mixed-asset works on the SCP Wiki.

This is a supplement to the Dummy's Guide to licenses and Licensing Guide. If you still have questions, please contact the Licensing Team directly at moc.liamg|gnisneciLPCS#moc.liamg|gnisneciLPCS or visit #Site34 on IRC.

Hi, I'm CityToastCityToast, Junior Licensing Team staffer and general licensing guru. As a freelance graphic artist and writer, I know a decent amount about Creative Commons licensing, and I'm often called to use assets that could have different licenses. This guide is meant to help you create compatible original works by explaining some advanced mixed media concepts.

Protip: Remember that having a license to something is different from "owning" it. Creative Commons licenses grant usage rights, but they do not grant ownership, even if you have the right to own a derivative work.

What the heck is a mixed-source image?

A mixed source image/graphic/asset is when you take two different assets and merge them together into one derivative asset. Here's an example:

When you create a work out of assets from different sources, you've created a "Mixed source" work. Since the SCP Wiki is pretty clear about what images it does and doesn't allow, it leaves few possible "combinations" that might arise, so I'm going to try and cover the majority of situations that might come up. Now it's time to play:

LICENSE ME THIS!

Do you have an asset you'd like to potentially use? Check out this handy dandy table. Remember, this table is a general guide and cannot possibly cover all possible scenarios. If there's any questions, ask the Licensing team, would ya?

The asset is… And I want to… Can I do that? Special considerations

…something I completely own, such as

  • original art or compositions you made from original assets
  • original texts you wrote
  • derivative works of other things you completely own
  • derivative works where all of the assets used are Public Domain or are completely owned by you
…add it to the SCP wiki Hell yes! When you do this, you are licensing it to SCP under CC-BY-SA 3.0, which means other people can now use it as long as they follow those license terms.
…blend it with something on SCP to create a derivative work. Yes! The resulting work is licensed under CC-BY-SA 3.0 and cannot be multilicensed.
…multilicense it under another license or allow a non-SCP project to use it, AFTER adding it to the SCP Wiki Yes! Doing this does not invalidate your CC-BY-SA 3.0 license, because CC licenses are irrevocable.
…add it to SCP Wiki after licensing it to someone else Maybe Double-check that the other license is non-exclusive and doesn't otherwise prohibit it from being multilicensed under CC-BY-SA 3.0, or the other licensee might want to have unhappy conversations.

…something that is:

  • In the Public Domain
  • Under a Public-Domain-Equivalent License such as CC0, Unlicense, or (my favorite) Do What the Fuck You Want To Public License
  • Released under CC-BY
  • Released under CC-BY-SA 2.0 or higher
  • A derivative work of any of these which is also released under one of these licenses.
…add it to the SCP wiki Yes You have to follow the terms of the license, including attribution. Also: Even though PD/CC0 licenses don't require attribution, we ask you to please link to the source anyway.
…blend it with something on SCP to create a derivative work. Yes! The resulting work is licensed under CC-BY-SA 3.0 and cannot be multilicensed.
…allow a non-SCP project to use it, AFTER adding it to the SCP Wiki or creating a derivative work involving the SCP Project Usually Doing this does not invalidate your CC-BY-SA 3.0 license, because CC licenses are irrevocable.

…something that is licensed under another Non-CC Free License, such as:

  • Free Art License
  • Creative Archive License
  • Against DRM License
  • Open Game License
  • CC-BY-SA 1.0
…add it to the SCP wiki No, unless it is multilicensed under a compatible license.
…blend it with something on SCP to create a derivative work. No. Creative Commons prohibits creating derivative works from other free licenses which it does not consider "equivalent", and CC-BY-SA 3.0 has no free license equivalents.

…something that is:

  • Released under any Creative Commons License that includes "Non-Commercial" (NC) or "No Derivatives" (ND)
  • A derivative work of either of these.
…add it to the SCP wiki No. Some creators do release their works under multiple licenses alongside Non-commercial licenses—one of which might be compatible with CC-BY-SA—but that is pretty uncommon.
…blend it with something on SCP to create a derivative work. No. It is absolutely incompatible for adaptation/remix by CC-BY-SA.

Golden Rule #1: So long as the resulting work is compatible with CC-BY-SA 3.0, you can add it to SCP. Doing so releases your art/image under SCP Wiki's CC-BY-SA 3.0 license regardless of the previous license. This doesn't invalidate the previous license, though.

Mixing Free Licenses

So you're wanting to create a work for use with SCP! That's great. Make sure to consider the assets you're using.

Protip: You cannot create derivative works that use CC 3.0 assets mixed with assets under another non-CC free license. For example, you cannot create a derivative work that uses both Creative Commons 3.0 and the Free Art License (FAL) unless the FAL work is multi-licensed under a CC 3.0-compatible license as well.

We're going to use this Public Domain image, this CC-BY image, and this CC-BY-SA image. (This is gonna be a weird lookin' skip.)

Golden Rule #2: When you mix sources, the minimum license of the resulting image is the most restrictive license.

If the sources you use are… You can choose to license the resulting work as (Colors indicate compatibility with SCP Wiki) Example Attribution
Public domain/CC0 sources only
  • CC0
  • CC-BY
  • CC-BY-SA
  • CC-BY-NC
  • CC-BY-NC-SA
  • CC-BY-ND
"Flower that wants to eat you" by UploaderName, licensed under <license>. Derivative of: "Blossom Flower" by Andrea Stöckel, (CC0).
  • CC0 and CC-BY sources

or

  • CC-BY sources only
  • CC-BY
  • CC-BY-SA
  • CC-BY-NC
  • CC-BY-SA-NC
  • CC-BY-ND
"Spooky flower in a house" by UploaderName, licensed under <license>. Derivative of: "Blossom Flower" by Andrea Stöckel, (CC0); "Ickworth House" by Si B, (CC-BY 2.0).
  • CC0, CC-BY, and CC-BY-SA sources

or

  • CC0 and CC-BY-SA sources

or

  • CC-BY and CC-BY-SA sources

or

  • CC-BY-SA sources only
  • CC-BY-SA
"What a terrible skip, downvoted" by UploaderName, licensed under CC-BY-SA 3.0. Derivative of: "Blossom Flower" by Andrea Stöckel, licensed under CC0; "Ickworth House" by Si B, (CC-BY 2.0); "Handsome Guy" by CityToast, (CC-BY-SA 3.0).
Any Creative Commons license with -NC or -ND
  • Always results in a NC licensed work
Any Creative Commons Free License (3.0 or lower) and any Non-Creative Commons Free License (Such as GFL or Free Art License)
  • Cannot create derivatives

Conclusion

Remember, licensing is sometimes weird. If you have any questions, check in with the licensing team; we're here to help!

Unless otherwise stated, the content of this page is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 License