CC0 vs All Rights Reserved: What NFT Licenses Really Mean

When people talk about owning an NFT, they usually mean owning the token itself: a record on a blockchain that points to a piece of art. What that token actually lets you do with the art, display it, sell merchandise based on it, remix it, is a separate question, and the answer depends entirely on the license attached to the project. Two terms come up constantly: CC0 and All Rights Reserved. They sit at opposite ends of the spectrum, and knowing the difference matters whether you are buying your first NFT or minting your own collection.

License and Ownership Are Not the Same Thing

Buying an NFT transfers the token to your wallet. It does not automatically transfer copyright in the underlying artwork, the same way buying a printed poster does not give you the right to reproduce that image on T-shirts and sell them. Copyright stays with whoever created the work unless they explicitly hand over or waive those rights. A project’s license is the document, or sometimes just a short statement on its website or marketplace page, that spells out what you are actually allowed to do beyond holding the token.

All Rights Reserved: The Default

Under ordinary copyright law, a creator automatically holds full rights to their work the moment they make it. Nothing needs to be registered or stated for this to apply. So when an NFT project says nothing about licensing, or explicitly labels itself All Rights Reserved, the practical result is the same: the creator keeps full control over reproduction, commercial use, and derivative works.

Many profile picture and art collections operate this way, often with a published license that grants holders a limited, personal use right. A common pattern, popularized by projects using the Dapper Labs style NFT License, lets a holder display their art and even sell modest amounts of merchandise, often capped at a yearly revenue threshold, while the creator keeps everything else, including the ability to pursue copyright claims against unauthorized use. Bored Ape Yacht Club is a well known example of a project that has actively enforced its reserved rights.

If you buy into a project like this, read the license before assuming you can use the art commercially. The token proves ownership of the NFT. It does not by itself prove you can print the image on a product and sell it.

CC0: Giving Up the Rights Entirely

CC0, short for Creative Commons Zero, is the opposite approach. A creator who releases work under CC0 waives their copyright and related rights as completely as the law allows, effectively placing the work in the public domain. Anyone, not just NFT holders, can copy, modify, remix, and use the art for any purpose, including commercial projects, without asking permission or paying a fee.

Why Projects Choose CC0

Nouns, one of the best known CC0 projects, is built around this idea deliberately. By removing legal friction, the project encourages outside developers, artists, and brands to build on top of the characters, which in turn grows the ecosystem around the original NFTs. Other projects such as Cryptoadz, Goblintown, and mfers followed a similar path, treating the open license as a growth strategy rather than a giveaway. The underlying bet is that a shared, unrestricted asset can spread further and generate more cultural and economic activity than one locked behind permissions.

What CC0 Does Not Change

CC0 affects the artwork’s copyright, not the token. Owning the actual NFT from a CC0 collection can still carry value, community access, voting rights in a DAO, or status, even though anyone else can legally copy the image. It is a useful distinction to keep straight: the license governs the art, the blockchain record governs the token.

The Space in Between

Few projects fall neatly into one category or the other. Some combine personal use terms for holders with limited commercial rights above a certain revenue cap. Others license the art for specific uses, say, social media and profile pictures, while reserving merchandise and licensing deals for the original creator. A handful release older collections to CC0 after the initial drop has run its course. Because there is no single enforced standard across marketplaces, the only reliable way to know the terms is to read them directly from the project.

Where to Check Before You Buy or Mint

• The project’s official website or a linked terms page, which is usually the authoritative source
• The collection description on the marketplace where it is listed
• Pinned posts or an FAQ channel in the project’s Discord or community server
• Smart contract metadata, in rare cases, if a project encodes license information on chain

If none of these clearly state a license, the safe assumption under copyright law is that all rights are reserved by the creator, even if the project never says so explicitly.

What This Means If You Are Minting Your Own NFTs

Creators deciding how to release their own work face a real tradeoff. All Rights Reserved keeps control and preserves options for licensing deals, merchandise, and brand partnerships later on. CC0 trades that control for openness, hoping that wider reuse builds a bigger community and more value around the project as a whole. Neither approach is automatically better. It depends on what you are building and what kind of community you want to attract. Whichever you choose, state it clearly wherever your collection is listed so that buyers know exactly what they are getting.

If you are minting your own art, the Simple NFT Creator app, available on the App Store and Google Play, walks you through creating and minting NFTs from your phone, giving you a straightforward place to get your collection out into the world once you have decided on your terms.