Free Software Ethicals Usage

[imo]

Hello.

Using a a free version that is destined for personal use of a software, very rarely at work for indirect commercial purposes can be considering stealing of a grave matter?

There is no piracy involved and the said software says that it has “hidden capacities to detect commercial use”, however it never detected mine.

It is a difficult subject to talk to a priest here, because it is a little bit technical and piracy is just overwhelmingly stablished here in Brazil that a question about personal/commercial use may seem too much.

 

[ProdglArchitect]

Knowing the software name would help.

For instance, I use Unity in my work. It has a free version for personal / indie development, as well as a paid corporate version meant for money-making endeavors. However, due to the way licensing is structured, we don’t have to purchase a corporate license until we make over 100k with the software. Since we have never made that much with it (I honestly don’t know if they’ve ever billed for the VR stuff I’ve put togeher XD), we are able to keep using the free version.

With this software, if you are using it directly in your money-making process, then you should probably pick up a license, again, depending on how their licensing structure is set up.

Either way, I doubt it would fall into the realm of grave matter. At most it’s probably a venial sin, assuming that you’re absolutely not allowed to use it for anything even tangentially commercially-related.

 

[imo]

Knowing the software name would help.

Thank you for your toughtful answer. The software is Team Viewer, it is for remote access to another computer. I normally just use when the support of a software that I use need the access, but is generally once per trimester, so paying a mouthly subscritption would seem too much.

 

[ProdglArchitect]

I’m very familiar with Team Viewer, it’s an awesome program.

Based on how their “free-to-use” blurb is laid out, it’s kinda iffy. They’re pretty clear about “non-commercial use.” That being said, they also offer 15-day free trials for all license tiers, so I doubt they’d throw up much of a fuss about it being used for quick access every now and then.