What’s a “commecial use” in Creative Commons licenses?
December 27th, 2009
Can I put on my website a text that was released under the license http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.5/deed.en or it is considered commercial use? (my website has advertising, like Google AdSense, so I make money with it).
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I am not a lawyer, and you should probably speak to one about this, but here’s my two cents. The full legal text says, “You may not exercise any of the rights granted to You in Section 3 above in any manner that is primarily intended for or directed toward commercial advantage or private monetary compensation. The exchange of the Work for other copyrighted works by means of digital file-sharing or otherwise shall not be considered to be intended for or directed toward commercial advantage or private monetary compensation, provided there is no payment of any monetary compensation in connection with the exchange of copyrighted works.”
Determining what is “primarily intended” for commercial purposes is somewhat hazy, but if you are not making more money than it costs to run the site, etc. (factoring in non-cash costs like your time as well), you are likely acting within the license. Making money is not completely forbidden by the license, but using the work primarily to do so.
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.5/legalcode
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