What does commercial use exactly mean

Question

There is a lot of open source engines and software with different licences conditions  Most of them are non-free for commercial use    The question is what does  commercial use  exactly mean   Example  I have site where I propose paid service or software  I want to create blog or wiki section on it  I download appropriated open source projects and deploy on my web site  Is it  commersial use  as I will not earn money on these engines but on the services I propose

User · Answer

If the usage of something is part of the process of you making money, then it's generally considered a commercial use. If the purpose of the site is to, through some means or another, directly or indirectly, make you money, then it's probably commercial use.

If, on the other hand, something is merely incidental (not part of the process of production/working, but instead simply tacked on to the side), there are potential grounds for it not to be considered commercial use.

User · Answer

Fundamentally if you use it as part of a business then its commercial use - so its not a matter of whether the tools are directly generating income or not rather one of if they are being used in support of income generation directly or indirectly   To take your specific example  if the purpose of the site is to sell or promote your paid services product then its a commercial enterprise

User · Answer

I suggest this discriminative question   Is the open-source tool necessary in your process of making money    a blog engine on your commercial web site is necessary  commercial use  winamp for listening to music is not necessary  non-commercial use

User · Answer

Commercial use  in cases like this is actually just a shorthand to indicate that the product is dual-licensed under both an open source and a traditional paid-for commercial license   Any  true  open source license will not discriminate against commercial use    See clause 6 of the Open Source Definition    However  open source licenses like the GPL contain clauses that are incompatible with most companies  approach to commercial software  since the GPL requires that you make your source code available if you incorporate GPL ed code into your product    Duel-licensing is a way to accommodate this and also provides a revenue stream for the company providing the software   For users that don t mind the restrictions of the GPL and don t need support  the product is available under an open source license   For users for whom the GPL s restrictions would be incompatible with their business model  and for users that do need support  a commercial license is available   You gave the specific example of the Screwturn wiki  which is dual-licensed under the GPL and a commercial license   Under the terms of the GPL  i e   without getting a  commercial  license   you can do the following    Use it internally as much as you want  see here  Run it on your internal servers for external users   clients   customers  or run it on your internal servers for paying clients if you re an ISP   hosting provider    If Screwturn were licensed under the AGPL instead of the GPL  that might restrict this   Distribute it to others  either free of charge or for a payment that covers the shipping  as long as you re willing to also distribute the source code Incorporate it into your product  as long as you re willing to also distribute the source code  and as long as either  a  it remains a separate program that you merely aggregate with your product or  b  you release the source code to your product under an open source license compatible with the GPL   In other words  there s a lot that you can do without getting a commercial license   This is especially true for web-based software  since people can use web-based software without it being distributed to them   Screwturn s web site even acknowledges this   they state that the commercial license is for  either integrating it in a commercial application  or using it in an enterprise environment where free software is not allowed   not for any use related to commerce   All of the preceding is merely my understanding and is not intended to be legal advice   Consult your lawyer to be certain

[open-source] What does "commercial use" exactly mean?

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