Some softwares say "free for personal use" but not for commercial use. From a freelancer's prespective only he uses this software personally not by others or any company or organization. He uses software to make money himself.
+42
A:
No. If you are a freelancer and are using some piece of software to make money, that is commercial usage. It does not matter that you don't own a company.
Mihai Limbășan
2009-04-07 08:10:47
Agreed if the freelancer is using the software to provide a service he changes for. However if he is using the software to learn, and will then provide the service on a client site and get the client to buy the software, I think it is then personal for the learning.
Ian Ringrose
2009-04-07 09:49:59
It's possible to see that as morally right, but it's not legally correct. Training and/or evaluation activity related to a commercial venture is commercial activity.
Mihai Limbășan
2009-04-07 09:51:52
I think that's a gray area, training and evaluation without prior knowledge of business is not a commercial activity.
PintSizedCat
2009-04-07 10:56:55
Without prior knowledge that a business transaction is going to occur it cannot be training and/or evaluationby definition...
Mihai Limbășan
2009-04-07 11:08:19
That's a strange definition. I have no plans to make money from skydiving, therefore any skydiving classes I might take are not training?
Joel Mueller
2009-04-09 02:17:42
They are not business expenses for training purposes, no (that's the context we're referring to.)
Mihai Limbășan
2009-04-09 04:45:05
+5
A:
as you say "he use software to make money himself." Making money by selling software is commercial business
PoweRoy
2009-04-07 08:11:25
+7
A:
That's not personal use, that's using to conduct professional services. The freelancer will have to pay.
sharptooth
2009-04-07 08:11:28
+4
A:
With your point of view, any company can use "free for personal use": it uses software to make money itself.
In my opinion, "free for personal use" means that you use software for your own personal needs and not for providing a product or a service to others (even if money is not involved).
mouviciel
2009-04-07 08:13:51
+10
A:
The answer will depend on the exact text of the End-User License Agreement for the software you want to use.
But as a rule of thumb, the answer will be no.
Dave Webb
2009-04-07 08:15:03
+1
A:
Maybe the situation gets a bit greyer when it comes to productivity software.
What are peoples' opinions here?
If I use a really neat code editor or a grep tool, for example, to help me be more productive in the code I produce, is that personal use or commercial? Is that adding commercial value to what I produce or just making my life easier whilst I go about my commercial activities?
Personally speaking I think it is still ethically wrong to benefit from such software and not pay for the benefit; if you think the software is good enough to make use of then surely you're should be prepared to acknowledge that someone put time and effort into producing it and can reasonably expect some recognition of the fact.
But then again I am one of the small percentage of people who actually have paid for a WinZip licence :-)
EDITED TO MAKE IT CLEAR THAT I DON'T CONDONE LICENCE ABUSE...Please read the whole post.
Gordon Mackie JoanMiro
2009-04-07 09:16:39
+3
A:
@Joan Miro: if the tool helps in the process of making money, you are using it for commercial purposes. Thus No.
There is no grey area, did it help you stay on task, did it help you track something, did it help? Are you making money? Yes to both equals commercial.
Simeon Pilgrim
2009-04-07 09:36:13
As I said in my answer - I agree, but I think others see it as a more grey area.
Gordon Mackie JoanMiro
2009-04-07 09:57:56
Sorry I was not attacking you, just the 'maybe' and 'grey' words. No personal offence meant. Really just sharing my opinion, as per line two.
Simeon Pilgrim
2009-04-07 22:07:49
+1
A:
No, no, No I'd love to think that we are working on mutual trust
permission is the secret key.
foxi/ freelancetraffic.com
foxi
2009-11-14 20:11:29