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Legalities


nic

Question

I might be treading on dangerous territory here *shrug*. But do understand i'm a student and relatively unaware of legalities relating to software like VW.

Our school is upgrading to VW10 in 2003. We has a copy of one program (not VW) that is shares around us and we all just install it at home and bring it back. Is this illegal? I don't think the other program requires serial numbers, is that the big issue with VW? Would the school be allowed to distribute one copy of VW to students?

Also I presently have an illegal copy of VW because I was just trying it out at home and didn't want to spend the $$'s if it wasn't going to work out. I can't update to VW10 on that, can I? I'll need to buy it from scratch, yes?

This may seem like a silly post but im interested because im kinda unaware of all this stuff. Thanks heaps

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You can't use an illegal version of VW to get an upgrade price out of the deal. We have ways of knowing if it's illegal or not when you place the order.

Generally, if the software is not freeware, it's illegal to use one license on multiple machines. That's pretty much the industry standard.

If the software is not license protected, it is a good chance it's freeware. In that case, install it on everyone's computer if need be.

It's a good idea, call it courtesy, to contact the manufacturer to see if it's "allowed" within the limits of license agreements or purchase agreements to install it on more than one computer. In the case of VW, it's illegal to install a specific VW serial number on more than one computer, except when used in a multi-license network environment, such as a classroom. We allow you to install all the serial numbers on all the computers, for ease on the network. When all serial numbers are in use, no one else will be able to use VW. Say you have 15 licenses, 30 computers have VW installed. Only the first 15 computers to launch VW will be able to use VW. The other 15 will not be able to use VW. A "Serial Number in Use" message will appear.

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This thread has me wondering what I may be doing could be considered illegal.

I have an educational version of Vectorworks that I purchased. I have it installed on my desktop at home so I can use the larger monitor, but I also installed it on my laptop so I could take it to campus to work on. According to the license, I'm allowed to make a backup copy, so would the copy on my laptop being considered backup, or do I need to purchase a multiple machine license even though I'm the only user?

Just curious,

James

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