What are the limitations of buying the Educational versions of software?

I made a quick scan of the EULA that Adobe has online, searching the text for “EDUCAT”.

I didn’t see anything on that brief tour that limited how to product is used… just a pointer to determine whether you qualify as an Education Pricing.

Perhaps your software has a more detailed EULA in the readme files or documentation section. I recommend checking on that.

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I’m not giving you the green lite. Just trying to help you figure it out for yourself.

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BTW. it’s call Adobe inDesign.

@robmandu I know what InDesign is, I was talking about the entire Adobe Design Premium CS3 which includes InDesign CS3, thanks for your help

simply put; you can’t make money out of it. When you create something and go commercial you need to buy the full version. Other than that it’s the same thing.

@Jax – thanks!

Out of curiosity, how can you tell the difference – whether or not someone used an educational version versus the regular version?

Educational versions are for “non-commercial” use. See the bullet point at http://www.adobe.com/uk/education/students/studentedition/faq.html about restricted functionality/use.

As far as I know, they don’t watermark the finished product as from an educational product as some tools do, e.g. AutoCAD.

You can’t tell the difference in the finished product. The software is the same, it’s only the license that’s different.

One very important difference, though, is that you typically cannot upgrade educational software. When CS4 comes out, you’ll have to buy it for the full price (or go for the educational discount again).

I’m not sure about this since I don’t have the educational version, but couldn’t the software write into a meta-tag the version being used (pro vs educational) and possibly make that meta-tag uneditable? Again, I don’t know so I’m just asking.

Thanks for the correction, @bridold. I see the full product name is Adobe Creative Suite 3 Design Premium.

I’m in agreement that education-purposed software is usually not allowed for commerical use. But you already knew that, else you wouldn’t have asked the question. So I would think you’d want a citation that makes specific mention of that limitation.

But…

I cannot find a reference to that on the US-based Adobe site. jaredq‘s link was to the UK site. And I found a similar mention for Asia-Pacific. However, looking at the US-based FAQ for Education Pricing of the “Adobe Creative Suite 3”, I see no mention at all of limits against commercial use.

In conclusion…

I reiterate that you should review the EULA that was included with your software. You should have electronic and hard copies available.

And…

If someone else can come up with a US-based link that spells out the limitation (or lack thereof), I’d be glad to see it.

https://store1.adobe.com/cfusion/store/html/index.cfm?event=displayEduConditions&store=OLS-EDU&nr=1

If you become “unqualified” to use the educational license you purchased you must upgrade to a commercial license or cease using the product. Educational versions are just that they are to learn on and can never be legally used for commercial projects. Adobe can audit you and impose heavy fines, however it is highly unlikely that they would due to cost.

There are a lot of people who think the EULA is the end all be all, but that isn’t usually the case. Software publishers can changes the rules just about any time they wish. You are after all purchasing the “privilege” to run their software by their qualifying rules and not the ability to use it as you wish. When it comes to software you own nothing.

@tekn0lust, I agree with all most points you make there.

Anyways, I’m sorry to be such a stickler about this. I know the answer is that educational software is not for commercial use.

But…

The link you provide specifically calls out “former Macromedia products”:

Education versions of Former Macromedia products only (Studio 8, Dreamweaver, Flash, etc.) are intended for instructional and administrative purposes only and may not be used for any commercial purpose.

The rest of the page seems to describe that only qualified students can buy from the Adobe Education Store, but doesn’t really seem to differentiate those cases where the student may have acquired the software elsewhere.

What am I missing?