License For Entrepreneur

[Zuti]

Dear Affinity Community,

 

I hope it's not an odd question, but is it possible to buy a "normal" license of either Photo or Designer and use it for commercial purposes?

I'm asking this because I recently started my own little start-up and heard that individual software licenses are usually not permitted for entrepreneurship.

 

Thanks in advance! :)

 

 

[JET_Affinity]

You've been ill-advised. You can buy most any graphics software and, of course, use it to create your graphics work which you sell to your clients. What you can't do is act as if the software itself is your own intellectual property. For example, you can't make copies of the software, re-label it as your own software product, and sell the relabeled software.

 

Think of it this way: An author can write his book in Microsoft Word, sell his book to a publisher, and deliver it as a native Microsoft Word document. But the author can't sell a copy of Microsoft Word to the publisher. The publisher has to buy its own license to Microsoft Word.

 

[Aside: You can, however, repackage and resell (and even modify the source code) for some open-source software, the license for which expressly allows you to do so. For example, there are multiple such offerings of re-branded OpenOffice applications. Again, even that is specifically spelled-out in the software license.]

 

Whomever is advising you is probably confused about the recent licensing scheme change which Adobe foisted upon its customers.

 

The Affinity applications are licensed under a traditional "perpetual license". That is, the license to a particular version is not time-limited. It doesn't "time-out" like Adobe's licenses now do. The license fee for a particular version of an Affinity program is a one-time payment. You don't have to continually "rent" the software. That is the way which most mainstream graphics software used for private or commercial work has historically been, and still is, licensed.

 

Adobe ended that with the CS6 versions of its main graphics applications, and changed its licenses to a take-it-or-leave-it continual time-based fee. This is one huge reason (there are others) why so many professional users are finding alternatives to Adobe graphics applications. Adobe has effectively abandoned the core customer base of entrepreneurs (freelance illustrators and designers, small agencies, etc.) who largely made Adobe what it is. A license "rental" scheme is not as hard to sell to a large corporate IT department, but most small shops and freelancers--often the most creative and talented users--are not nearly so amenable toward being held captive to paying a continual time-based fee just to be able to continue to open their own files.

 

But again, even with a traditional one-time-payment license, the software itself is still owned by the software company (in this case, Serif). You own the files you create with it. but you don't own the software. You can't give away or sell copies of the software itself. So someone downstream (your customer) who wants to work with your files in their native environment (the same software you used to create the files) would have to also buy a license to that software. But that's not the typical case. You typically deliver your files to a printer or to the web or to the client as a PDF, not as a native Affinity file.

 

JET

[Zuti]

Thank you JET for your quick and informative answer!

 

You guessed right, I decided to make the switch from Adobe to Affinity exactly due to the high amount of subscription fees here in Europe. The student versions were manageable, but now that I want to run my own business, it's just extremely difficult to pay those prices continually. Since I am mostly using just Indesign and Photoshop, I see no reason to pay for all the other apps and additional services like cloud storage etc. Adobe's licensing system really is confusing, thanks for providing clarification.

 

I think I'm going to find a new and better home with Affinity soon :)

[Affinity Designer SUCKS]

Thank you JET for your quick and informative answer!

 

You guessed right, I decided to make the switch from Adobe to Affinity exactly due to the high amount of subscription fees here in Europe. The student versions were manageable, but now that I want to run my own business, it's just extremely difficult to pay those prices continually. Since I am mostly using just Indesign and Photoshop, I see no reason to pay for all the other apps and additional services like cloud storage etc. Adobe's licensing system really is confusing, thanks for providing clarification.

 

I think I'm going to find a new and better home with Affinity soon :)

I see what the problem is. Adobe gives students free software but won't let them use it commercially.

They get the kids used to their apps and then they hook them to the milking machine :angry: 

[anon1]

I see what the problem is. Adobe gives students free software but won't let them use it commercially.

They get the kids used to their apps and then they hook them to the milking machine :angry:

https://helpx.adobe.com/x-productkb/policy-pricing/education-faq.html

 

it is not free for students but very much reduced pricing and you can use it commercially as well 

 

 

"

Can I use Student and Teacher Edition products commercially?

Yes, Student and Teacher Edition products can be used commercially on your privately owned computer. They may not be resold.

"

 

but if you do not need ALL adobe apps, Affinity is the better deal for most people for sure