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fcp5 upgrading from educational
I was a little distressed on saturday when I read that if you have an educational version of FCP 4 then you cannot upgrade to FCP5. The apple website said that you would have to buy the whole program, which I think is ridiculous. FCP is a very inexpensive program, yes, but for editors starting out it seems a bit unfair to not make the upgrade available for young people who might have bought FCP4 in college and then recently graduated.
All I know is that I saved money at the time through my college, but I probably would have bought the full program if I knew that I wouldn’t be able to upgrade it in the future.
On saturday, the Apple site said that it would not be upgradeable for people who had educational version, but today I cannot find that anywhere. Maybe Apple realized that this was not fair for students or recent grads? I don’t know (Like most corporations, I am sure they don’t really care about what is fair), but I hope so.
Best,
EliEli Mavros
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17 Replies
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I just backtracked my steps from Saturday and did find, hidden deeply in the website, the page that I had seen about not being able to upgrade from an educational version. This does not seem right, seeing that they are letting people upgrade from Final Cut Express…which I think is even cheaper than what I paid for and Educational FCP when I was in school. I am befuddled, because there are so many different upgrade links on the main site, and then this one page is the only one that makes mention of it.
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have you been using fcp to make any money?
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I noticed this as well.
Before this upgrade, Apple would allow you to buy a commercial upgrade for an academic license and it would bring you to a commercial status. I am not sure why they are changing this as it seems to fit right into what a lot of students want to do – after school open up their own little shop. Their previous policy was perfect for it. I suspect that this is either inaccurate or Apple is getting really sticky on upgrades.
gl
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I have made money using FCP, but that is at my job, where I am using their FCP and their license. Since I am still very new to the working world, I do a lot of pro bono editing at home…but that is besides the point; I have no problem paying big leauge prices now that I am out of school, and I would gladly pay the full upgrade price (I am not looking for another educational discount), but I think it is not fair that I did buy my educational version with no indication that I would not be able to upgrade it to the full version. Hell, if they want to charge me even more to upgrade, then fine…but to make me buy the whole program all over just doesn’t seem right, especially since FC Express costs less than what I payed for my educational version and they are offering FCE people an upgrade, it may be more than the regular upgrade, but it isn’t a full grand.
Just venting…
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I side with you on the subject. Whats to say you didn’t buy a dual g5 while in shcool…does that mean once you graduate you cant use it on a professional level? It does get a bit sticky. As far as I remeber the Educational Discountis only 100-200 bucks right…… Maybe Apple is being a bit cheap when they won’t allow a former student to “professionalize” his gear. And for 100-200 bucks…… How many could there be to upgrade from ed. to pro?….. 25000? 50000? I am sure the meal/entertainment (vegas) budget for NAB and Macworld is a much larger loss.
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The educational discount was not 100-200, it was half the price of the retail software for institutions, 100 more than that for individuals. It’s ridiculously cheap. I don’t think any other company offers education prices that are so deeply discounted. That’s why they’re not offering upgrades. Their educational discount is comparable to the retail upgrade price. If you need a full retail copy because you are no longer eligible for an educational discount then the only option is to pay full retail and qualify for upgrade pricing on future versions.
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First of all I do realize that we are not changing Apple’s mind here in this discussion but, there is precedence and reason for the argument. There are several companies that encourage students to make the change from academic use to commercial use by offering them something for their initial investment. For example, Alias allows you to buy an academic->commercial upgrade from the education license. It works out to be a little cheaper in total for this path actually but the main point is you get to take your initial, albeit smaller, investment and get some application out of it.
I just don’t see how it hurts Apple to do this when they get a practically guaranteed customer for future upgrades whereas they take the risk in having them go elsewhere when they graduate due to cheaper perceptively cheaper H/W and market pressure.
gl
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Tom, I apologize for the misconception that the discount was that minimal. I guess I should do a little more research before spouting off. But at even half the price then paying 400 for the upgrade aren’t you essentiallly paying around the same price for a now “legal” professional verison. The Educational version was used for the purpose of educating the students on the application. Now that it is going to be used to make money they do the right thing. I feel this would promote students who are mostly broke after finishing school and trying to find jobs to keep using the educational software in the professional world until they land enough jobs to layout another grand. Right or wrong if Apple wants to keep pulling in the younger generation don’t stab them in the back once you have them hooked.
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There is nothing in the terms of the education license that precludes it from being used to make money. However, the license is only valid as long as you are en eligible educational user or institution. If you are no longer an eligible student, teacher or administrator, you quit, get fired, graduate, whatever, the license is no longer valid for using the application, and a retail license has to be purchased. That’s not changed. The only thing that’s changed is that you can no longer upgrade from one license to the other. It’s their game and that’s the rules they’ve set. I guess they feel they’re giving such a break on the education price, that if you are no longer eligible for it you should pony up for the full version. There are students who have been using FCP since v2, 3 and 4, that’s like three years, and have been doing it very, very cheaply. If they graduate and want to continue using FCP they have to find a way to buy the application. You may not like the policy, but it doesn’t seem all that unreasonable to me.
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I wouldn’t have such a problem with it if they were not giving a discount to FCE users…it is practically the same situation…these people bought the software and learned it all at a cheap price, and they get a discount on the upgrade…what about the poor sap who bought FCP last semester?
Eli Mavros
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