The trouble with these code snippets is that they condense very complex and squishy social structures into what incorrectly appears to be simple binary decision

The trouble with these code snippets is that they condense very complex and squishy social structures into what incorrectly appears to be simple binary decisions. Creative Commons spent years defining what "commercial" means. It's obviously a commercial use if I'm using your items to make money... But, what if I'm a charity? What if it's hosted on a website that runs banner ads? What if I don't turn a profit? This was a years-long discussion that you can review https://wiki.creativecommons.org/wiki/NonCommercial https://wiki.creativecommons.org/wiki/NonCommercial Code emphasizes what consensus we need to come to, the consensus that those complex legal documents define. For example, that's part of why the GPL is so long, it's specific.