vevy wrote: ↑Sat Feb 08, 2020 2:26 pm
But what exactly is non-commercial use.
AFAIK, "commercial use" simply refers to using the program for work. When I was working in an office, I made a point not to use "non-commercial use only" programs at the work PC. I now work as a freelancer and the line is a bit blurrier now, but there is still a clear difference of using something for work vs. using it in spare time. For example, I randomly need an image editor in my work, and while I prefer
PhotoFiltre, it's only free for non-commercial use and I use GIMP for all work stuff.
vevy wrote: ↑Sat Feb 08, 2020 2:26 pm
If I were a freelancer and I used a renaming tool to organize my work files. This would help make my work easier, even if not directly involved in the work itself.
Commercial use.
vevy wrote: ↑Sat Feb 08, 2020 2:26 pm
What if I used a pdf reader to read a book that can
help me with my work?
This is commercial use if you
need that book for your work. For example, if you find yourself writing a
compiler in your job and reading a PDF about how
tokenizers work. (Yes - been there, done that. Although the article about tokenizers was a normal blog post, not a PDF.)
If it's something you just read in your spare time to eventually improve in your work, it's not commercial use.
vevy wrote: ↑Sat Feb 08, 2020 2:26 pm
- What if I use it to learn about something I may expand into professionally later.
- What if I use it to read about a subject that just interests me, but will expand my mind/views/skills in a way that will help me in my work (the subject of automation for example)?
-
Things are getting more and more removed from a clear commercial case, but that is the point. Where to draw the line ethically if not legally?
These are non-commercial use.
vevy wrote: ↑Sat Feb 08, 2020 2:26 pm
What if I used a note-taking application to store my notes and ideas about work among other things?
It's commercial use.
----
In general, the distinction between commercial and non-commercial use stems quite simply about whether you're making money by using the program. In that case the developers have decided that it's not fair if you benefit from the program but they don't. (But to be more specific, it's about whether you're
trying to make money - if you're an entrepreneur and fail to make any money, your use of the programs is still commercial.) The corner cases about "something that expands your skills" or whatever are rare enough that pretty much no one cares about it. The developers get the bulk of their money from actual commercial use anyway.