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I have a simple question: if I publish a free app (iOS, Android, ...) and implements advertising in the app, does it's considered a commercial app? I'm asking this question because I don't know if I can use tools that have a certain license to build a game and get money with advertising from fee app.

Jazzguy
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    When it comes to licensing software and resources, the term "commercial" vs "non commercial" is very poorly defined. You have a good question... for either a lawyer or the original authors. –  Mar 25 '15 at 19:47
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    It's not a coincidence that another word for *advertisement* is *commercial*. – Caleb Mar 25 '15 at 19:48
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    In my jurisdiction, something is considered “commercial” for some purposes if that kind of thing would usually (not necessarily in my case) be distributed with a commercial interest. Often, “commercial” means “not for personal use”, which also categorizes “non-profit“ as “commercial”. Since you attempt to raise money through ads (even if only with the intention to balance your app-related expenses), this very likely makes it commercial. However, this depends a lot on the exact license scheme of the tools you are using, and as MichaelT points out this is a question *we* cannot reliably answer. – amon Mar 25 '15 at 19:57
  • See also [Creative Commons' viewpoint on this matter](https://wiki.creativecommons.org/Frequently_Asked_Questions#Does_my_use_violate_the_NonCommercial_clause_of_the_licenses.3F). Note: Creative Commons is not a legal service; your legal questions can only be answered by a lawyer whom have entered an agreement with you to provide answers in your interest. – rwong Mar 25 '15 at 20:00
  • See also: [***Defining “Noncommercial”: A Study of How the Online Population Understands “Noncommercial Use”***](https://wiki.creativecommons.org/Defining_Noncommercial) – rwong Mar 25 '15 at 20:05
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    Instead of asking a lawyer, why don't you ask the author / copyright owner of the app if he thinks what you are going to do is "commercial use"? He picked the license for a specific purpose, and he might be the one to sue you (or not) in case of a license breach. – Doc Brown Mar 25 '15 at 20:55
  • Why not also say which license you're considering. Some licenses like GPL specifically grant in their agreement that you can charge money for your derivative work. And I don't see why advertising would be a problem, either. – Brandin Mar 26 '15 at 07:20

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