Yes — but the combined work must be released under the more restrictive license.
Creative Commons Zero v1.0 Universal code can be combined with GNU General Public License v2.0 code without conflict. The combined work, when distributed, must be licensed under GNU General Public License v2.0. The original Creative Commons Zero v1.0 Universal files keep their notice, but the project as a whole is governed by the stronger copyleft.
| License | Family | Patent grant |
|---|---|---|
| Creative Commons Zero v1.0 Universal (CC0-1.0) | permissive | No (implicit at most) |
| GNU General Public License v2.0 (GPL-2.0) | strong-copyleft | No (implicit at most) |
Creative Commons Zero v1.0 Universal: Public-domain dedication; primarily for content but seen on some code.
GNU General Public License v2.0: Strong copyleft: derivative works distributed must also be GPL-2.0.
If you found this page because you're trying to figure out whether shipping a particular dependency is safe, the answer above is a starting point — not a substitute for reading the actual licenses or talking to a lawyer when stakes are high.
LicenseHound walks every transitive dependency in your repo, maps each to its SPDX license, and flags pairs like this one in PR comments. The CLI is free; the team dashboard is paid.