Re: Mathematica 8 Home Edition
- To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
- Subject: [mg116099] Re: Mathematica 8 Home Edition
- From: Daniel Lichtblau <danl at wolfram.com>
- Date: Wed, 2 Feb 2011 06:07:35 -0500 (EST)
AES wrote: > In article <ii5rii$fia$1 at smc.vnet.net>, > Murray Eisenberg <murray at math.umass.edu> wrote: > >> So far as I am aware, for a given version number, e.g., 8.0.0, the >> regular (i.e., "Professional") edition = Home Edition = Student Edition >> with respect to features. >> >> The two aspects that _may_ differ are: (1) kind of support provided by >> Wolfram Research (beyond installation issues), and (2) whether some >> special identification of the edition appears on printed pages. > > > And, the legal restrictions that you (purportedly!) agree to, and even > commit others to, when you purchase and use the Home Edition. > > Last time I looked at the fine print of these was several years ago, but > my reaction at that time was that they were as extensive as they were > dismaying as they were stupid as they were unenforceable. If you go to the order page, https://www.wolfram.com/securecheckout/?model=MHED100D&use_type=Home Edition there is the following note "Mathematica Home Edition is a 32-bit program available for Windows (XP/Vista/7), Mac OS X (Intel), and Linux. It is not licensed for commercial, nonprofit, academic, or government use. For those who want to integrate Mathematica into their teaching, research, or work, Mathematica Professional is always available." There is a legalese version of this in the license agreement. In essence it spells out that the product is solely for personal use and NOT for commercial use. It is about as brief as the above; I'd show it, except I only have it in a scanned pdf and I cannot cut-paste the text. Is this the point of controversy? I ask because, for a product being discounted to around 15% of the professional price, these do not strike me as especially onerous conditions. In particular, I've yet to see the part about restrictions to which one would "commit others". Feel free to enlighten me. Daniel Lichtblau Wolfram Research