How can sound assets be &quot;license and royalty free&quot; but also &quot;non-commercial use only&quot;?
<p>MAGIX likes to sell sound packages that they proclaim as &quot;license-free and royalty free content for non-commercial use only&quot; (e.g <a href="https://www.cloudswave.com/creative-tools/s/magix-soundpool-dvd-collection-20/compare/magix-video-slideshow-sound-archive-8/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://www.cloudswave.com/creative-tools/s/magix-soundpool-dvd-collection-20/compare/magix-video-slideshow-sound-archive-8/</a> ). Sometimes they offer products that they advertise as &quot;completely license and royalty free&quot; but if you inquire they still tell you they are for non-commercial use only. I would have thought that prohibiting commercial use inherently requires a license, and that &quot;license-free&quot; inherently meant that the content could be used commercially. Is my assumption incorrect?</p>

<p>They can't.</p>

<p>It seems that what is going on here is that someone doesn't actually understand what "license" means.</p>

<p>If it's license free, that means you can do exactly what copyright law allows, and nothing else. Which in practice means not much. If you want to use these sounds on your non-commercial website for example, then you need a license that allows you use your non-commercial website.</p>
<p>Now their website might contain a promise that they will never, ever sue you for copyright infringement for non-commercial use, and that they will never ask you for royalties for such use, and that might be enough in court to stop them from getting any damages for copyright infringement.</p>
<p>And prohibiting commercial use doesn't require a license. Allowing non-commercial use <em>requires</em> a license.</p>

licensing