CC BY 4.0 Guide

How to Attribute SRD Material

What Creative Commons requires when you share SRD material, what Wizards of the Coast asks on top of that, and each edition's statement, quoted exactly.

CC BY Hub

Two sources of rules, kept apart. The license sets the minimum. Wizards asks, in each SRD's legal page, that a specific statement appear in your work. Where a line below is Wizards' request and not the license, it says so.

Fact: the license's attribution rule

Section 3(a)(1): If You Share the Licensed Material (including in modified form), You must: a. retain the following if it is supplied by the Licensor with the Licensed Material: i. identification of the creator(s) of the Licensed Material and any others designated to receive attribution ... ii. a copyright notice; iii. a notice that refers to this Public License; iv. a notice that refers to the disclaimer of warranties; v. a URI or hyperlink to the Licensed Material to the extent reasonably practicable; b. indicate if You modified the Licensed Material and retain an indication of any previous modifications; and c. indicate the Licensed Material is licensed under this Public License, and include the text of, or the URI or hyperlink to, this Public License. Read Section 3.

Section 3(a)(2): You may satisfy the conditions in Section 3(a)(1) in any reasonable manner based on the medium, means, and context in which You Share the Licensed Material.

Fact: what Wizards supplies

Each edition has its own statement. Wizards asks that the statement for the edition you use appear in your work, and that you do not add other attribution to Wizards. Each is quoted exactly as Wizards publishes it.

SRD 5.2.1 Cited by this library Current edition

The System Reference Document 5.2.1 ("SRD 5.2.1") is provided to you free of charge by Wizards of the Coast LLC ("Wizards") under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License ("CC-BY-4.0"). You are free to use the content in this document in any manner permitted under CC-BY-4.0, provided that you include the following attribution statement in any of your work:

This work includes material from the System Reference Document 5.2.1 ("SRD 5.2.1") by Wizards of the Coast LLC, available at https://www.dndbeyond.com/srd. The SRD 5.2.1 is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, available at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode.

Please do not include any other attribution to Wizards or its parent or affiliates other than that provided above. You may, however, include a statement on your work indicating that it is "compatible with fifth edition" or "5E compatible."

Section 5 of CC-BY-4.0 includes a Disclaimer of Warranties and Limitation of Liability that limits our liability to you.

Read from Wizards of the Coast's SRD 5.2.1 PDF on 2026-10-29.

SRD 5.2 Cited by this library Previous edition

The System Reference Document 5.2 ("SRD 5.2") is provided to you free of charge by Wizards of the Coast LLC ("Wizards") under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License ("CC-BY-4.0"). You are free to use the content in this document in any manner permitted under CC-BY-4.0, provided that you include the following attribution statement in any of your work:

This work includes material from the System Reference Document 5.2 ("SRD 5.2") by Wizards of the Coast LLC, available at https://www.dndbeyond.com/srd. The SRD 5.2 is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, available at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode.

Section 5 of CC-BY-4.0 includes a Disclaimer of Warranties and Limitation of Liability that limits our liability to you.

Read from Wizards of the Coast's SRD 5.2 PDF on 2026-10-29.

SRD 5.1 Legacy edition

The System Reference Document 5.1 is provided to you free of charge under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License ("CC-BY-4.0"). You are free to use this content in any manner permitted by that license as long as you include the following attribution statement in your own work:

This work includes material taken from the System Reference Document 5.1 ("SRD 5.1") by Wizards of the Coast LLC and available at https://dnd.wizards.com/resources/systems-reference-document. The SRD 5.1 is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License available at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode.

Please do not include any other attribution regarding Wizards other than that provided above. You may, however, include a statement on your work that it is "compatible with fifth edition" or "5E compatible."

Section 5 of CC-BY-4.0 includes a Disclaimer of Warranties and Limitation of Liability that limits our liability to you.

Wizards of the Coast also offers SRD 5.1 under the Open Game License 1.0a as well.

Read from Wizards of the Coast's SRD 5.1 PDF on 2026-10-29.

Neither SRD PDF contains a copyright notice (our research report: a text search of both found no “©” or “Copyright”), so there is none to retain.

Our reading: how the license and Wizards' statement line up

What Section 3(a)(1) lists	What to do for SRD material
Creator and any designated attribution	Use Wizards' statement for your edition; it names Wizards of the Coast LLC.
A copyright notice	None is supplied in the SRD PDFs.
A notice referring to the license, and the license link	Wizards' statement does both. The legal code is at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode.
A notice referring to the disclaimer	The disclaimer sentence under each statement above.
A link to the material	The URL inside the statement.
Indicate if you modified it	If you changed anything beyond a trivial change, say so. Creative Commons' FAQ: It is not necessary to note trivial alterations, such as correcting a typo or changing a font size.

Where to put it. Section 3(a)(2) lets you use any reasonable manner, including a link to a resource that holds the information. On a page that shows one spell, a notice on the page, or a visible link to a page that holds the full statement, are both plausible; a credit only in metadata fields is a pitfall Creative Commons names. This guide does not determine which method is sufficient in every downstream context; ask qualified counsel about a specific use.

Using more than one edition. Wizards' SRD page says you can use SRD 5.1 and 5.2 in the same product as long as proper attribution is provided. Our reading: carry each edition's statement.

Which edition is this site's data?

This site cites SRD 5.2.1 and SRD 5.2 for its D&D library. The records were imported from two open-source projects before Open5e began correcting its data toward SRD 5.2.1 (2026-10-10), so the data is not cleanly one edition, and the import changed some wording (for example, the spell heading “At Higher Levels.”). The records are therefore modified SRD material.

This is the site's own position on its data, stated for transparency; it is not a Wizards statement. The SRBDE Council approved this guide copy for public release after lawyer review on 2026-10-28.

This is a guide, not legal advice. It is a drafting aid and checklist, not a certified or guaranteed-compliant legal review. TheCrazyGM is not affiliated with Wizards of the Coast or Creative Commons. Licenses and policies can change: check the reviewed date below and the primary sources linked on the page, and for anything beyond routine attribution consult a qualified attorney. The full license text is on the CC BY hub.
SRBDE Council approved this guide copy for public release on 2026-10-28; administrator wording review recorded 2026-10-29. The current edition list follows the site's data decision and does not claim row-specific provenance; a later source audit may narrow it. Reviewer of record: Eco. Sources: the CC BY 4.0 legal code, Wizards' SRD legal pages (linked above), Wizards' SRD page and Creative Commons' FAQ (accessed 2026-10-22).