Editorial: Education Version Software--What's the Catch?
Mallory York
Issue date: 12/5/07 Section: Opinion
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By Mallory York
High-end software isn't cheap. Programs like Adobe Illustrator CS3, which are required for many Media and IT classes at Peninsula College, range in cost from $500 to $1000 each for the full versions. With textbooks, tuition and living expenses to cover already, how can students afford one of these required computer programs?
Education version software is one way.
So called because they are intended for student and teacher use only, education versions of high-end software may seem to be the solution to expensive class requirements. The education version of Illustrator CS3, for example, costs $400 less than the regular version, and because you're a student you qualify to use it.
At the end of the course you get to keep this high-end, excellent software to use, right? Wrong.
Yes, you can keep the fancy software that you've just learned to use, and for which you paid hundreds of dollars less than you would have for the full version. Unfortunately, the label of "education version" has some small print attached.
Case in point: education versions of software may only be used for educational purposes. This means that owning it lets you get all of your homework done, but essentially you can only use it for homework. Explained in-depth in the user's license agreement that you must accept during installation of the software are rules that forbid its use for profit.
Many people click right past such long legal spiels without reading them. After all, it's hard to understand what they mean without a lawyer's help anyway, right? In this case, that means lots of people could be using their education versions of software illegally and have no idea that it's not allowed to be used to design their home business's web site graphics, their friend's bake sale products' labels, or posters of their artwork to sell.
How do software developers tell if you're using a full version or an education version unless they're connected to your computer's installed software?
High-end software isn't cheap. Programs like Adobe Illustrator CS3, which are required for many Media and IT classes at Peninsula College, range in cost from $500 to $1000 each for the full versions. With textbooks, tuition and living expenses to cover already, how can students afford one of these required computer programs?
Education version software is one way.
So called because they are intended for student and teacher use only, education versions of high-end software may seem to be the solution to expensive class requirements. The education version of Illustrator CS3, for example, costs $400 less than the regular version, and because you're a student you qualify to use it.
At the end of the course you get to keep this high-end, excellent software to use, right? Wrong.
Yes, you can keep the fancy software that you've just learned to use, and for which you paid hundreds of dollars less than you would have for the full version. Unfortunately, the label of "education version" has some small print attached.
Case in point: education versions of software may only be used for educational purposes. This means that owning it lets you get all of your homework done, but essentially you can only use it for homework. Explained in-depth in the user's license agreement that you must accept during installation of the software are rules that forbid its use for profit.
Many people click right past such long legal spiels without reading them. After all, it's hard to understand what they mean without a lawyer's help anyway, right? In this case, that means lots of people could be using their education versions of software illegally and have no idea that it's not allowed to be used to design their home business's web site graphics, their friend's bake sale products' labels, or posters of their artwork to sell.
How do software developers tell if you're using a full version or an education version unless they're connected to your computer's installed software?