Can I remix a NoDerivatives work?
You may remix a NoDerivatives work in private. You may not share what you made. The ND term in the Creative Commons license prohibits distributing Adapted Material. One exception exists, and it is decisive: private adaptation stays permitted. This guide walks through the exact rule, what counts as an adaptation, and the safest route for anyone who wants to build on an ND work.
The Core Rule: No Shared Adaptations
Under Creative Commons 4.0 International, the NoDerivatives condition states that a licensee may not distribute Adapted Material. Take the original work and modify, translate, or combine it into something new. That new version cannot be shared with anyone else, even for free, under the same ND license. The permission the licensor gave stops at unchanged distribution.
Private use is different. Download the work and edit it on your own device for reference, study, or personal enjoyment. The license does not grant permission to share that edit. To distribute a remix, get separate permission from the copyright holder outside the CC license framework.
What Counts as Adapted Material Under ND
Creative Commons 4.0 defines Adapted Material as a work based on a licensed work and requiring copyright permission to create. The text gives two categorical examples. Translation is normally an adaptation. Synchronising music with a moving image is expressly Adapted Material. Cropping, excerpting, editing, or combining may or may not create Adapted Material. Applicable copyright law decides. There is no universal boundary.
Check Your Planned Change
Because the ND term blocks sharing Adapted Material, check whether your planned modification counts before you decide your next move. A change of format alone, printing a digital image at the same size, is not an adaptation. But the safer assumption with ND is that any creative addition, removal, or recombination will be treated as an adaptation by the licensor and by downstream users.
| Your Intended Action | What The License Allows | What You Cannot Do Under The License |
|---|---|---|
| Download and view | Yes | N/A |
| Edit privately for personal use | Yes | Share the edited version |
| Translate the work | Private translation only | Distribute the translation |
| Crop or excerpt a portion | Check applicable copyright law | Share if it creates Adapted Material |
| Combine with other works | Private combination only | Share the combined work |
| Distribute unchanged copy | Yes, with attribution | Apply ND to your own collection |
| Get separate permission from the creator | Depends on the permission terms | Share under any terms they grant |
The One Decisive Exception: Private Adaptation
Creative Commons 4.0 licenses do not control what you do in private. The ND condition prohibits sharing Adapted Material, not creating it. Remix an ND work for your own use. Show it to a spouse or friend in person. Keep it on a personal hard drive. The moment you upload it to a website, send it by email to a mailing list, or include it in a public repository, you are sharing Adapted Material and violating the license.
This exception covers private study, personal enjoyment, and non-public collaboration among a small group. If the group expands beyond what a court would treat as private, the license limitation reasserts itself. There is no bright-line number of recipients. The safe approach: do not share the adapted file with anyone who did not already have independent access to the original ND work.
What Happens When You Share Anyway
Distribute adapted material derived from an ND work without separate permission and the license for that use terminates automatically under 4.0. Cure the violation within 30 days of discovering it and the license is automatically reinstated. During the period of violation you have no license. The licensor can pursue copyright remedies under applicable law. Cure does not erase liability for the period of breach.
The Platform Reality
The practical failure case is a takedown notice or a platform dispute. The licensor identifies the work, the exact condition, and the infringement. You distributed Adapted Material from an ND work. You have no defence under the CC license. The platform may remove your content. You may lose access to your account. The only safe path is to obtain separate permission from the copyright holder or to use the work without adaptation.
The Safest Next Step
If you genuinely need to remix and share an ND work, do not assume the CC license will cover you. The ND condition is a hard stop on sharing adaptations. Your options, in order of reliability:
- Use the work unchanged and attribute correctly. This avoids the ND restriction entirely.
- Contact the creator directly and ask for separate permission to create and share adaptations. Many creators will grant this for specific uses.
- Look for the same work under a different license. The creator may dual-license the work, one ND version for basic sharing and a BY or BY-SA version for adapters.
- If the work was published before 4.0 and under an older ported license, check the exact version. The ND term works the same way, but the cure and reinstatement mechanism is different.
The Honest Caveat
The most common mistake with a NoDerivatives work is assuming that because the license allows sharing and commercial use, it also allows adaptation. It does not. The ND condition exists to keep the work intact. Crop, edit, translate, or combine it and share the result, and you have no license for that use. The creator can demand removal. You have no automatic right to cure if the violation is discovered later. Start from the assumption that the work is fixed as published. Treat any modification as something that needs separate negotiation.
Common Questions
Can I crop an ND image and use the crop in my blog post?
Cropping may create Adapted Material under applicable copyright law. Even if it does not, sharing the crop without the original attribution is a breach. Best practice: use the unchanged work or get permission.
Does the ND condition stop me from synchronising an ND song with my video?
Yes. Under 4.0, synchronising music with a moving image is expressly Adapted Material. Sharing that video would violate the ND condition. You need the creator's separate permission.
Can I include an ND photo in a PDF compilation if I keep the photo unchanged?
Yes, if the compilation is a collection of separate unchanged works. Each work keeps its own license. But if editing the PDF crops or modifies the photo, that becomes an adaptation.
What if I translate an ND article and only share it with my classmates?
Translation is normally an adaptation. Sharing with a class group outside the original license is distributing Adapted Material, which the ND condition prohibits. Keep it private or get permission.