got a question for you guys...

Post by **lordofduct** » Wed Jan 30, 2008 9:52 am

I haven't been posting for the past week or so, been really busy.

But I stopped in to see if you guys know the answer to this question.

You know how Photoshop and Flash CS3 and all those other design programs have educational licenses... for students... at a fraction of the price. Now I understand this is for students and non-profit organizations like it distinctly says in the license agreement...

But what if you as a student with a student copy gets a small free lance job making something that utilized several of these student licensed tools. Would that be considered breaching the license agreement?

If it is, what the bugger hell!?

Post by **Curlypaul** » Wed Jan 30, 2008 10:45 am

Its my understanding that any of these special licences are on the grounds that the software will be used for your own personal needs and any commercial use is outside of the licence agreement. I may be wrong though

Post by **Funk, E** » Wed Jan 30, 2008 10:53 am

Adobe's products under the EL aren't to be used to commercial purposes.

Post by **lordofduct** » Wed Jan 30, 2008 11:00 am

but it is hardly commercial... I'm talking like a small side project you do and happen to catch someones eye with it. They want to buy it off you and send you cash.

Kinda like if I made a painting or filmed a short film.

and what constitutes commercial. Commercial is usually associated with a profitable organization, e.g. business, corporation, or LLC.

Post by **Scooter** » Wed Jan 30, 2008 11:07 am

If you make money from your work effort or products of your work effort then it's commercial. If the money paid only reimburses your for your expenses, then it could be considered non-profit but you'd technically have to have documents and receipts showing your expenses equal or exceed the income you received.

Post by **ImportBoy** » Wed Jan 30, 2008 11:18 am

Yes, probably technically not allowed.

But does it really matter? Does Adobe secretly embed some meta data saying it was made using educational version? I have tons of educational lisences (benefit of working in high school school IT department during summers) and have used them for years. Specifically Dreamweaver, and I never noticed anything embeded in the code it produces.

Post by **racketboy** » Wed Jan 30, 2008 11:47 am

but if you made the work before you were offered money for it, that shouldn't count....
Seriously, I wouldn't worry about it.
I think they are more concerned with you actively using it for commercial purposes.

Post by **Funk, E** » Wed Jan 30, 2008 12:29 pm

True enough, but just going by the letter of the agreement without placing any of my own judgements onto it (my vote is to just sell whatever you're going to sell), it's a no-no.

Post by **ott0bot** » Wed Jan 30, 2008 12:53 pm

Technically yes you are violating the educational liscene of the stundent version software by selling something you created with that software. There is a little coded tag in the save that you can trace to that version of the software. However, they will probably only find out that info if you are giving them the file. If you are selling a print there is no way to trace where it came from so don't worry about that. And they usually only investigate businesses who use the eduacational software For commercial purposes which they can track throught the registration key and when you do an update online.

So...if you started and Design Firm as an LLC or a Corperation you better get legit software, otherwise I don't think anyone will know the difference or care.

Post by **tbeeghly** » Wed Jan 30, 2008 1:05 pm

Duct, what kind of design do you do? I go to DAAP at Cincinnati for Digital Design.