As a fulltime Uni student I'm now entitled to purchase the latest Shake under Educational Pricing. Yay! The question is are there any differences between the full/retail version and the education version? Does the education version come with the same documentation? Also, if I purchase the education version, am I allowed to use it for commericial use? What about when I'm no longer a student?

I've heard that education versions of FCS are NOT entitled to future upgrades. As Shake is now discontinued, I guess that rules that problem out!

I don't have the EDU version, Apple's educational licenses generally only allow for non-commercial use of their software. You can continue to use the software for non-commercial purposes after graduation, but to be licensed for commercial work, you generally need to buy a full version.

Functionally, the software is the same as the full price version.

There are mixed offerings when it comes to upgrades. Many times, Apple makes upgrade offers that disallow the use of the offer when upgrading from an educational license ... other times it's OK.

At just about $500 ... it might be worth just going for the commercial version right from the start. Chances are, you would make back the price differnce with your commercial compositing gig.

I don't have the EDU version, Apple's educational licenses generally only allow for non-commercial use of their software.

That is simply not true, but it's a common misconception (which I suffered from also until I read the license myself). The only thing different about Academic Versions is the qualification for who may purchase, not what you use it for:

http://images.apple.com/legal/sla/finalcutstudio51.pdf

Academic Copies: If the Apple Software package has an academic label or if you acquired the Apple Software at an academic discount, you must be an Eligible Educational End User to use the Apple Software. "Eligible Educational End Users" means students, faculty, staff and administration attending and/or working at an educational institutional facility (i.e., college campus, public or private K-12 schools).

It is true however that the Academic Version of FCS cannot be upgraded.

I don't really know much about Shake, but the license is rather brief doesn't make any mention of an academic version at all. Perhaps there's a more lengthy version distributed with the actual product?

http://www.apple.com/legal/sla/shake.html

Academic Copies: If the Apple Software package has an academic label or if you acquired the Apple Software at an academic discount, you must be an Eligible Educational End User to use the Apple Software. "Eligible Educational End Users" means students, faculty, staff and administration attending and/or working at an educational institutional facility (i.e., college campus, public or private K-12 schools).

Source: Final Cut Studio 5.1 LSA


After reading the above it makes me think that ONLY students can use the software. Once you finish your schooling you are no longer licensed to use the software. But, whilst you are a student, you can use the software for whatever purposes you wish, including commerical use (ie. using it to make money).

I suppose you might be right about that! But, as you say, there are no restrictions as to what you use the software for...

Very interesting.....
I'd been shying away from educational versions with the assumption that they were non-commercial use licenses.

It's going to take me at least the next year-and-a-half to finish my MFA degree .... mmmmmmm :)

I have recently bought a powermac with final cut through the student shop of Apple, as a student (in holland) and i have specifically asked someone from apple, whether i am allowed to use both for commercial purposes after I gratuated and use it for my company without upgrading or paying more for a commercial license. The guy form Apple ensured me that it is not a problem. So I suppose this is the same for Shake.

What I understood is that you dó get a educational discount, but you are buying the official version. I got the official version, official box and nowhere does it say that it is a student version, or student license.

And If you really want to be shure, call someone from Apple.

Really? I always thought that it said "EDUCATIONAL" or something along those lines during the splash screen. But if it doesn't and the book, box, manual etc. is the same, then I guess there's no way for someone to pick the difference between a retail version and a education version; unless you're from Apple and have the ability to check the serial/license number. Interesting!

Well I'm not a student or faculty member anymore, so I haven't seen the academic versions of any of these packages. However, on Apple's FCP support forum they said Apple changed their FCP policy with version 5 (IIRC). With older versions you could purchase an upgrade and it would install. But with the new versions the upgrade reads your old serial number and refuses to install.

But Shake might be different... maybe there isn't enough demand for them to bother making a separate version, so they just discount the regular product?

Nowhere in my edu copy of shake have I seen the word educational. At $250, I couldn't be happier.

I believe the academic and the commercial versions are exactly the same.

Confirmed!

My educational version of Shake just arrived. It is fully packaged as "Shake 4.1 Retail". Therefore it is only the pricing that is different between the Education and Retail products.

Also, the "Shake Software License Agreement" makes no mention of an Education version. Therefore, you CAN use Shake (purchased under Educational pricing) for commercial use.

( I love the line in the SLA that says: "NOT INTENDED FOR USE IN THE OPERATION OF NUCLEAR FACILITIES, AIRCRAFT NAVIGATION OR COMMUNICATIONS SYSTEMS, AIR TRAFFIC CONTROL SYSTEMS, LIFE SUPPORT MACHINES...". Shake must be some powerful software! )

Confirmed!

My educational version of Shake just arrived. It is fully packaged as "Shake 4.1 Retail". Therefore it is only the pricing that is different between the Education and Retail products.

Also, the "Shake Software License Agreement" makes no mention of an Education version. Therefore, you CAN use Shake (purchased under Educational pricing) for commercial use.

( I love the line in the SLA that says: "NOT INTENDED FOR USE IN THE OPERATION OF NUCLEAR FACILITIES, AIRCRAFT NAVIGATION OR COMMUNICATIONS SYSTEMS, AIR TRAFFIC CONTROL SYSTEMS, LIFE SUPPORT MACHINES...". Shake must be some powerful software! )

Awesome! I just ordered my Eductional Version last night, and I was debating on just buying the retail because I worried about it not being able to be used for commercial use after I graduate. I am not worried anymore!

In this months 3d world there is an article on Shake and its price cut. It states that Shake will not progress past its latest version, and that they're pricing it more as a plugin for FCP. However Apple are working on a new compositing solution.

Yup. This has been circulating since the price cut first happened.
In fact, you can actually now buy the SOURCE CODE for shake for a measly $50,000. (25 seats at the old price!)

Will be a lot of fun to see what they come up with, but in the meantime, you can get a wicked, world-class compositing app that can go head to head with tools costing thousands more for the price of a plug in.

There are people who cling to a swear by their version 1 Shake installs running on Windows .... even without future upgrades, this is a proven, VERY functional tool.

>http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?p=544448#post544448<

If any of you can answer that would be great. Thanks.

Here is a copy
>I bought my Shake 4 educational open box. I successfully registered it with Apple so that was a relief but....
it only came with the Volume I and Volume II user manuals. The seller said that was all that came in the box, is this correct or should the box also contain the Tutorials manual? It has plenty of room for a third manual.

My Apple documentation says Shake 4 User Manual and Shake 4 Tutorials Manual. On the DVD, this is exactly what I have in pdf form but the printed manuals are clearly just the first and second half of the User Manual.

The Apple support person I registered with said he didn't have a contents list for the educational version.

If it's missing a Tutorial manual it was suppose to have, I'd like the seller to make good. That is why I am asking. - Thanks.<

You can find the answer to James' question here (http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showpost.php?p=544492&postcount=2).