[Foundation-l] Creative Commons publishes report on defining "Non-commercial", Is Wikpedia non commercial?

Anthony wikimail at inbox.org
Tue Sep 15 18:25:23 UTC 2009


On Tue, Sep 15, 2009 at 1:13 PM, Gregory Maxwell <gmaxwell at gmail.com> wrote:

> I've never heard of a major software company hauling
> someone to court over a non-commercial/educational use license, and
> while it's probably happened I doubt it's a frequent occurrence.
>

Probably doesn't fit your "major software company" definition, but:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ProCD_v._Zeidenberg

In addition to a case like that (which involved redistribution), I'm sure
lots of large companies have gotten fined for noncommercial-only software
found during a software license compliance audit.

Which doesn't really answer the question, but:

*If you're editing Wikipedia from work for non-work reasons, you're probably
breaking company policy as well as tax laws anyway.
*If you're editing Wikipedia from home, the issue is highly unlikely to
reach a court anyway.


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