Maybe "commercial software" is software where the rights of use and conveyance for the recipient must be negotiated with respect to commercial considerations (transfer of value in return).

Free software would not be commercial because the grant of use and conveyance for the recipient does not require commercial consideration.

It would be commercial software because restricted administration of the rights of use and conveyance of software is the basis of commerce for the rights holder.

Sam

On 15/03/11 09:35, Hugo Roy wrote: 
Le mardi 15 mars 2011 à 09:07 +0000, Alex Hudson a écrit :

For me, software is commercial software if you enter into a
transaction
to obtain/use it. 

A transaction isn't always monetary. You can see a "contract" as a
transaction too. The GPL can be seen as a transaction too.

Plus, you can pay to get a copy of Free Software by paying. As RMS puts
it "Selling Free Software is OK!"
http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/selling.html

I guess it proves there is no point in saying "commercial software" or
"non commercial software". To me, all software is commercial unless
forbidden (for instance, with creative commons non commercial, but
that'd be silly). And the GPL does not forbid commercial use. 

Best,


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[FSF Associate Member #2325]