Noncommercial: can derivative works be released under other license ?

[dgpv]

My question is probably dumb, but it is not clear to me (as a totally-not-a-lawyer), what would be the status of derivative works in regard to changing license for them ?

In non-commercial license, I see

Changes and New Works License

The licensor grants you an additional copyright license to make changes and new works
based on the software for any permitted purpose.

Can the restrictions of Non-commercial license be circumvented by just trhowing in a few changes, calling it a 'new work based' on the software, and then release it under, say, BSD license (releasing under BSD license does not have a commercial purpose in itself) ?

And then use that BSD-licensed derivative work for commercial purposes (the entity that creates derivative work and re-licenses, and the entity that uses that BSD-licensed derivative can be unrelated) ?

[bradrydzewski]

@dgpv I am not a lawyer and cannot provide legal advice, however, I would point out that the section of the license you quoted limits changes and new works for permitted purposes.

The licensor grants you an additional copyright license to make changes and new works
based on the software for any permitted purpose.

based on my understanding, the non-commercial license defines permitted purposes as non-commercial use, individual use, and use by non-commercial organizations.

if you make changes or new works based on the software, and use them for commercial purposes, and commercial purpose is not a permitted purpose, do you think this would violate the license?

[dgpv]

If entity A makes changes or new works based on the software, but not use them for commercial purposes, just re-releases the new works under BSD license. Just the re-release with different license does not seem to constitute commercial use. If it is allowed, entity A did not breach anything, and there are now a BSD-licensed software based on the original software.

And then entity B (unrelated to A) uses the new works, in accordance to BSD license, and BSD allows commercial use. The new works under BSD license is not restricted by the license of the original software.

Is re-licensing prohibited implicitly ? It is not clear to me as a non-lawyer.

[bradrydzewski]

Have you considered how the Notices section impacts the scenario you have described?

You must ensure that anyone who gets a copy of any part of the software from you also gets a copy of these terms or the URL for them above

[dgpv]

It seems that the thing that allows BSD-licensed code to be relicensed as GPL, for example, is that BSD license is permissive. Because of that, GPL can be layered upon it, and BSD license still applies in addition to GPL to the derivative work, but because BSD is so permissive, it is 'invisible' (modulo copyright notices) after the code is re-licensed under GPL.

Because polyform non-commercial license is not permissive, BSD or GPL cannot be layered upon it.

Is my understanding correct ?