   Microsoft Academic Licensing and Commercial Development
  Hey guys,Some other students and I are creating a game development startup. According to microsoft's website, it says: "Full and part time faculty and staff of qualified educational institutions may acquire Microsoft Academic Edition full packaged product (boxed retail product) for work and personal use at special pricing."This statement implies that the above mentioned faculty and staff can create commercial products using the discounted software. Specifically, my group is interested in Visual Studio 2005 Standard Edition.As a student, I have a free version of VS 2005 I obtained from my school that I know I CAN NOT use. However, I have been led to believe that if I purchase a VS Academic Edition full packaged product then I can indeed create commercial software. Can anyone confirm that this is the case?-Sean   
  In that case why don't you just look up the free visual studio 2005 standard edition thread and save yourself some money?I think you have till the end of the month to get it and it'll probably be another month before you get it in mail but heh it's free.   ;Quote:Original post by datadawgx"Full and part time faculty and staff of qualified educational institutions may acquire Microsoft Academic Edition full packaged product (boxed retail product) for work and personal use at special pricing.""Work" in this instance means accademic work (on the part of students) or work as part of their job as faculty staff (in the case of faculty staff). Commercial work wouldn't be covered by either of those. Nor would it be covered by "personal use". So, unless there is some other mention of use for commercial purposes I don't think you can.At the end of the day the people to ask are Microsoft.   ;  If you have a Student ID from a college, you can get a discount on software from places like Campustech and JourneyEd (places that specialize in online academic discounted software).  But as has been said, it is against your license to use them for commercial endeavours.  But they are (usually) fully enabled pieces of software.  Its more honest than using cracked software, but still illegal.   ;Quote:Original post by dmailDo what you want and don't be restricted by what ms says, the free version you have is the same as which I have vs 2005 pro and I have no intention of going out to pay money for a similar version.That may be the most retarded thing I have ever read.  As the license itself states, "The software is licensed, not sold".  Of course, you knew that already I'm sure.------------------------------That said, I do not think that the Visual Studio Standard Academic Edition license disallows commercial use. Actually, all the EULA in my VS.NET 2005 Standard Edition Academic says about the academic part is this:Quote:13. ACADEMIC EDITION SOFTWARE.  You must be a “Qualified Educational User” to use software marked as “Academic Edition” or “AE.”   If you do not know whether you are a Qualified Educational User, visit www.microsoft.com/education or contact the Microsoft affiliate serving your country.To be a qualified educational user you must be one of five things, among them: "D) Full and Part Time Enrolled Students: Defined as full and part time enrolled students of Educational Institutions."So, in short, there is no exclusion in the license for commercial uses.;Quote:Original post by dmailThank you, yet I do not understand why you think it's "retarded".Because you just told a guy to violate the terms of his license.  Your exact words, actually, were:Quote:I didn't think anybody took any notice to this junk ms says. Do what you want and don't be restricted by what ms says, the free version you have is the same as which I have vs 2005 pro and I have no intention of going out to pay money for a similar version.And then when I pointed out how juvenile and just BAD that advice was, you rated me down.Well done.