I'm considering buying the full version of Flash MX . The only thing preventing me from doing so right now is the cost - the full version goes for $499US. I don't have the money for that so I was considering picking up the special student discounted version for $99US. I'd like to be able to incorporate any flash files that I make into websites that I may create for profit...I know with the student discount that you're not supposed to do this, my question is - does Macromedia track this ? What exactly is the "OBJECT classid" embedded within the the html page that has a flash file ? Does that get used to keep track of legit users ? What are my chances of getting caught ?
To the moderator of this board, I'll understand if you wish to remove this post due to the nature of my question. If you do, would you email me your ideas of where I might stand ?
It is very hard, if not impossible to get caught for using an academic version of Flash MX for commercial purposes. Macromedia cannot track you by checking the classid attribute because it has nothing to do with copy protection. Take a look at this page for more information: http://www.macromedia.com/support/flash/ts/documents/tag_attributes.htm
Although it is technically illegal to use an academic version of product for commercial purposes, I think it is better than using a pirated copy. You at least pay $99 to the maker of the product by buying an academic copy. If I were Macromedia , I wouldn't be angry if I see you buy the commercial version as soon as you make some money from the academic version. But there is a better alternative. You can buy an old used copy (it should be 4 or 5) from a friend or ebay, and use it to legally upgrade to Flash MX for $199. It is still a little expensive, but at least legal. Another option would be using that old copy for a while. After all, do you really need all the new features of MX ? A quick search on ebay revealed that you can buy Flash 4 or 5 for about $50. Remember Flash 4 does not support ActionScript, and if you buy a used copy make sure that it was not already used for upgrading to a later version.
