Overview
At the sole discretion of the company, we may from time to time make a version of the software available without charge, providing that it is used solely for personal and non-commercial purposes. The use of any such free version is provided on the strict condition that any use as part of any trade, business or profession, or any other use for which a user directly or indirectly receives compensation such as building their own software or other product for sale or doing the same for a company that employs you is not permitted. In the event that a user with a free license starts to use the software for any commercial purpose the free license will immediately and automatically terminate and the user must purchase an appropriate commercial license from those available at the time or destroy all copies of the software that they may hold.
Any use that gives rise to direct or indirect compensation will mean that user cannot use the free license on other products. In other words it is not permitted to mix and match license versions - usage is either commercial or non-commercial.
The Community License is still subject to the full End User License Agreement which forms the legal basis of the contract between the company and the user, and the company reserves the right to terminate any free license for any reason at any time. The Community license is a privilege, not a right.
Limitations of the Community License
At the sole discretion of the company there may be limitations applied to the free version of the software which may be implemented by any lawful means including but not limited to physical, legal, or technical means.
In particular it is likely that business related functionality (i.e. that which is unlikely to be needed in a non-commercial use environment) may not be available in any free version. Some advanced features may also be available only to those users with a Commercial or Pro License or any other such license type that may be introduced from time to time.
Typically, if you have to pay for commercial software that you then want to use with our software, that will mean that doing so is automatically considered commercial use. In addition although a detailed online help system and documentation will be available for users of any free version, there is no direct technical support service offered other than any Free Support that may be made available under the terms of the license.
Examples of Permitted Free Use
The following list, which is not exhaustive, gives examples of usage that would come within the terms of a Free for Non-Commercial use license:
•Use for Educational purposes, for example teaching students how to build computer software, where the student is not paying for that education and the resulting software is not to be offered in exchange for any type of reward. This means that use by any state school would be within the license, but use by a public school would not.
•Use for hobby purposes, for example learning to build computer software where there is no charge for the use of the resulting software or for supporting that software
•Use for Open Source software purposes, where there is no charge for the use of the resulting software or for supporting that software
•Use for Charitable purposes by unpaid volunteers where there is no commercial element to the result of that use
Examples of where Free Use is NOT permitted
The following list, which is again not exhaustive, gives examples of usage that would require a commercial license:
•Use as part of the gainful employment of the user
•Use for Educational purposes where the educational establishment is paid by the student. This means that Universities and Public Schools would need a commercial license to use the software.
•Use for creating software that has both free and paid versions
•Use where the user is offering a paid support service, including use in providing Technical Support for devices
•Where use by a Charity results in income generated for that charity
•Where more than one copy of the software is used whether on a single or multiple computers
•Where more than one developer is working on a project
•Where the computer in use is joined to a Domain which is commonly used only in commercial environments
•Where other paid for commercially licensed tools are being used by the same user. For example, using paid for editions of Microsoft Visual Studio, Resharper, Advanced Installer, or any other paid for development software would clearly indicate commercial use.
•Where a headless server is being used to run the software as this type of hardware is normally only used by commercial organisations
If you are in any doubt whether a particular use constitutes commercial use, please contact us for advice and clarification.
Important: The number and type of licenses that are available may be changed at any time. However, once you have purchased a license you will be entitled to all rights conferred by that license for its entire term.
See Also: Commercial License Pro License End User License Agreement