Non-commercial activity

A non-commercial (also spelled noncommercial) activity is an activity that is not carried out in the interest of profit.¹ The opposite is commercial, something that primarily serves profit interests and is focused on business.

For example, advertising-free community radio stations are typically nonprofit organizations staffed by individuals volunteering their efforts to air a wide variety of radio programming, and do not run explicit radio advertisements, included in the United States specific grouping of "non-commercial educational" (NCE) public radio stations.

Some Creative Commons licenses include a "non-commercial" option, which has been controversial in definition.² In a 2008 survey conducted in the United States, some respondents interpreted the concept as:³

• "If I have nothing to gain from it, then it's non-commercial."
• "If you can afford to pay for it, do it; otherwise it's OK anyway"
• "What we consider to have "genuine" educational purpose"