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Study Surveys Public's Idea of 'Noncommercial Use'

By Robert J. Ambrogi

A key concept in copyright law is that of commercial use. It is a factor in analyzing fair use. And the Creative Commons licensing scheme includes a noncommercial license, by which copyright owners allow others to use their work provided it is for noncommercial purposes. But what is noncommercial? Do the creators and users of copyrighted works agree on what this means? Last year, Creative Commons set out to explore the public's understanding of this concept. Now, it has published the results of the year-long study, Defining "Noncommercial": A Study of How the Online Population Understands "Noncommercial Use." The somewhat surprising conclusion is that creators and users largely agree in their understanding of noncommercial. Here is what the executive summary says: The empirical findings suggest that creators and users approach the question of noncommercial use similarly and that overall, online U.S. creators and users are more alike than different in their understanding of noncommercial use. Both creators and users generally consider uses that earn users money or involve online advertising to be commercial, while uses by organizations, by individuals, or for charitable purposes are less commercial but not decidedly noncommercial. Similarly, uses by for-profit companies are typically considered more commercial....

Full post as published by Legal Blog Watch on September 17, 2009 (boomark / email).