What exactly is non-commerial use?

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vevy
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What exactly is non-commerial use?

#1 Post by vevy »

You all know the drill. Free for personal use only.

But what exactly is non-commercial use. I have heard multiple explanations:
  • don't distribute the software in something you sell (usually used with some open source tools)
  • don't use it in making something to sell
  • don't use it if you are a company (buy the pro version)
  • don't use it if you are an employee in a company
  • don't use it in a work that makes money
  • ...
I am particularly uncertain about the last one. Because everything is involved in making money in some form or another.
  • 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.
  • What if I used a pdf reader to read a book that can help me with my work?
  • 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?
  • What if I used a note-taking application to store my notes and ideas about work among other things?
  • etc
This site is about freeware so I'm sure many have pondered that question at some level, and some are developers themselves. I am very interested to hear your take on this. :)

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Re: What exactly is non-commerial use?

#2 Post by webfork »

what exactly is non-commercial use
I recall a story years ago where a company was suing folks for not licensing software properly, and then an audit revealed how many employees of said company were running unlicensed software. In the wake of it, many admins in the industry either disabled installation or turned up the controls on computers to try and protect against against unlicensed software. This greatly contributed to the success of both portable software and general freeware tools.

Additionally, since more and more companies are creating software, they want to avoid an incident that might hurt sales. And since most companies are naturally risk averse, if it's not specifically allowed (i.e. "freeware"), it's probably forbidden.

In terms of legal standing, the specifics on "commercial usage" are very unclear. Unlike the Creative Commons effort (which should not be used for software licenses), there is no standardization. This is complicated by the fact that many developers frequently lack clear instructions on what to do to get a commercial license. Licensing and legal issues are usually seen as thorny, boring, or opaque, and they tend to be ignored.
Where to draw the line ethically if not legally?
In terms of what should be done, I can think of some rough guidelines:
  • Obvious gain - avoid using non-commercial freeware where you're being paid by the hour.
  • Delayed benefit - If a program either saves you money or helps you gain it (e.g., a book is published using the tool and becomes successful, or a recovery program un-deletes your wedding pictures), buy a copy of the program. This is especially the case if the result is especially important or lucrative.
I also have no qualms using non-commercial use software for brief periods, within reason. After all, most commercial software has a one-month trial.

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Re: What exactly is non-commerial use?

#3 Post by vevy »

webfork wrote: Sat Feb 08, 2020 7:11 pmIn terms of legal standing, the specifics on "commercial usage" are very unclear. [...] This is complicated by the fact that many developers frequently lack clear instructions on what to do to get a commercial license. Licensing and legal issues are usually seen as thorny, boring, or opaque, and they tend to be ignored.
Yeah, good points. But you rarely specify commercial and personal licenses unless you are selling software. Why don't you take the time to be clear about it? This is what irritates me! For a trillion-dollar industry, this issue is surprisingly murky. :x

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Re: What exactly is non-commerial use?

#4 Post by webfork »

vevy wrote: Sat Feb 08, 2020 7:49 pm For a trillion-dollar industry, this issue is surprisingly murky. :x
I know some percentage of the software here started out as a commercial idea. When it initially doesn't sell or has stiff competition, they decide to make it available for maybe educational or personal use to get a userbase. Coming up with a clear license for what was sort of a Plan B or Plan C might therefore be an afterthought. And unless it's making real money, consulting a technical writer or lawyer might seem like overkill.

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Re: What exactly is non-commerial use?

#5 Post by SYSTEM »

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.

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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.
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Re: What exactly is non-commerial use?

#6 Post by Midas »

This is only marginally related but serves as reminder that software companies aren't exempt from shady behavior themselves...

Microsoft had shifted at least $39 billion in US profits to Puerto Rico, where the company’s tax consultants, KPMG, had persuaded the territory’s government to give Microsoft a tax rate of nearly 0%.

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Re: What exactly is non-commerial use?

#7 Post by webfork »

While I agree with the analysis that SYSTEM put together above, I want to emphasize that it still depends on who you talk to. Here's just a few possible definitions:
Also, to the extent that we're trying to respect the requirements of a creator, I can certainly imagine someone intending to only ask for money from enterprise environments. They may not care about small businesses or freelancers but don't know how to capture that in a license, so they just say "non-commercial."

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Re: What exactly is non-commerial use?

#8 Post by vevy »

What if you use the same computer both personally and for work. Does this count as commercial use of your Antivirus or your defragmentation utility?
Last edited by vevy on Sun Feb 09, 2020 10:19 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: What exactly is non-commerial use?

#9 Post by SYSTEM »

vevy wrote: Sun Feb 09, 2020 9:20 pm What if you use the same computer for both personally and for work. Does this count as commercial use of your Antivirus or your defragmentation utility?
Nah, I don't think so. It's not like you're directly making money with either.
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Re: What exactly is non-commerial use?

#10 Post by vevy »

Hmm... I expected you to say it is commercial use. :D
This kind of blurriness makes me more understanding of the permissive open source licenses such as MIT. Like who needs this headache? Here is the software, do what you want!

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Re: What exactly is non-commerial use?

#11 Post by SYSTEM »

vevy wrote: Sun Feb 09, 2020 10:22 pm Hmm... I expected you to say it is commercial use. :D
This kind of blurriness makes me more understanding of the permissive open source licenses such as MIT. Like who needs this headache? Here is the software, do what you want!
Or alternatively, if you're making money, don't be that cheap and just buy the full version. Salaried people can usually easily afford to buy some payware.
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Re: What exactly is non-commerial use?

#12 Post by vevy »

SYSTEM wrote: Sun Feb 09, 2020 10:31 pm
vevy wrote: Sun Feb 09, 2020 10:22 pm Hmm... I expected you to say it is commercial use. :D
This kind of blurriness makes me more understanding of the permissive open source licenses such as MIT. Like who needs this headache? Here is the software, do what you want!
Or alternatively, if you're making money, don't be that cheap and just buy the full version. Salaried people can usually easily afford to buy some payware.
It is not (usually) a matter of money. One reason for me (although not my number 1 reason) is that I try out a lot of software and hate the feeling of buying something only to find out a few months later that it is missing a feature I came to find important (as my use case evolves). :?

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Re: What exactly is non-commerial use?

#13 Post by Midas »

:arrow: A propos, a quick case study on the implications of free software and making money...
Freemium pricing brought in 500,000 users in the first year for Trello. They launched at TechCrunch Disrupt & were gaining 1000s of users each day with ZERO paid marketing but they ran into a big problem. [...] Trello users started to churn saying since it was free, it would end up shutting down. The founders realised that not charging people became a friction point. So they created an MVP Pricing Model.

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