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MAGIX likes to sell sound packages that they proclaim as "license-free and royalty free content for non-commercial use only" (e.g https://www.cloudswave.com/creative-tools/s/magix-soundpool-dvd-collection-20/compare/magix-video-slideshow-sound-archive-8/ ). Sometimes they offer products that they advertise as "completely license and royalty free" 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 "license-free" inherently meant that the content could be used commercially. Is my assumption incorrect?

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They can't.

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

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    Then I guess the question becomes how a court would rule on it, but frankly I'd rather buy from a company that understands how licensing works and is straightforward about their products.
    – user45623
    Commented Sep 23, 2016 at 21:03
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    As a coder from the hoi palloi, this stuff can be confusing. Obviously it's better to include a license with your open source work. But when you want to let average people know that you are allowing them to use your software for free, you tend to minimize the idea that they'll have to pay royalties. On the other hand you want to make sure it isn't used commercially without your consent. Throw in a marketing department with no background in software or law and give them a few conflicting requirements and you have a really bad EULA.
    – joshstrike
    Commented Jan 4, 2021 at 11:42
  • I suspect what the phrase "license-free" is intended to mean is that once one has purchased the collection, one can use items therein without having to acquire a separate license for each individual use. While the phrase "license-free" isn't entirely accurate, I can't think of any way of expressing such a concept nearly as concisely.
    – supercat
    Commented Jan 18, 2021 at 22:46
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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.

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.

And prohibiting commercial use doesn't require a license. Allowing non-commercial use requires a license.

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    One might argue that those terms form, albeit flimsy, a license in itself.
    – Mindwin Remember Monica
    Commented Jun 19, 2023 at 16:27

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