Question: Highcharts is supposed to be an open source chart project that is free for personal use and for non-profit organisations. For non-profit organisations and individuals it is licensed under the [Creative Commons (CC) Attribution-NonCommercial licence](http://Creative%20Commons%20(CC)%20Attribution-NonCommercial%20licence)

Now I'm in a situation that I am a software developer, developing software for an eligible organisation (non-profit, non-government since highcharts does not consider government organisations to be covered). Now as I understand it, this organisation does not need a licence for Highcharts and if I was an employee of this organisation I could just use highcharts to develop a Highcharts enabled website for them. 

My questions are:

1. Is my previous assumption that if an in-house team develops the organisation's website then a licence is not required correct?
2. If I am not an employee of of that organisation but I am just contracted **as an individual** to create and deliver a Highcharts enabled website for them, do I need to purchase a licence for Highcharts?
3. If I belong to a for-profit company which is contracted to develop a to create and deliver a Highcharts enabled website to a non-profit organisation, is a licence required in that case and if yes, what kind of licence (assuming that Highcharts is not generally going to be used by that company in any other projects or services)?

Answer: 
> 
> Now as I understand it, this organisation does not need a licence for
>  Highcharts and if I was an employee of this organisation I could just
>  use highcharts to develop a Highcharts enabled website for them.
> 
> 
> 

IANAL. But

(a) the licensee would normally be the organisation rather than its employers or contract workers.

(b) the organisation does need a license. That's why Highcharts has provided one: specifically, the CC-BY-NC license.

(c) I don't think there's a distinction between employees and contract workers. If the organisation has a license to do X (and it appears they do) then they can ask you to do X on their behalf, whether you are an employee or not, unless the license defines explicit constraints, which it doesn't.

(d) If this license ever gets tested in court then the lawyers are going to have a field day and the outcome is highly unpredictable. It's therefore highly unlikely that anyone will risk suing anyone unless it's a flagrant breach. If what you are doing seems fair to you, then it's unlikely to be a problem.
No answer seems to have told you this already so let me highlight that Highcharts is *not* open source nor free software! On their website they are very careful not to use these terms. Instead they say that they are "Free for non-commercial" (this means at no cost) and "Open" (which is vague but is basically about trying to benefit from the advantage of open source without fully committing to it). Indeed, they are developed in the open, on GitHub and anyone can contribute.

Next, I wouldn't venture in giving definite answers to your questions because the interpretation of the non-commercial clause might very well vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. So I cannot advise you in any way except to tell you that you should either:

1. Talk to a lawyer.
2. Ask to Highcharts themselves in writing, and hope that they give you a clear answer (this should help you to defend yourself in court if they later change their interpretation).