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legality question when using model files from the educational version

Question asked by Christoph Kukulies on Aug 25, 2014
Latest reply on Aug 31, 2014 by Christoph Kukulies

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When using model files that were produced with the educational version of SolidWorks and one is using them in the professional version, is that legal?

Or do I violate some legal restrictions doing that?

Best regards,

Christoph

Lenny Bucholz Aug 25, 2014 1:34 PM

Correct Answer

per the license agreement

OTHER RESTRICTIONS ON USE. This Agreement is your proof of license to exercise the rights granted herein and must be retained by you. Other than as permitted in Article 1 with respect to SolidWorks eDrawings Professional, you may not use any portion of the Software separately from or independently of the Software and other than for your normal educational instructional purposes as described herein (see Eligibility Requirements). This license is NOT available for use by research labs that may be located at or be affiliated with an educational institution. This license DOES NOT grant the right to use files created by the Software for any commercial purpose or enable others to use files created by the Software for any commercial purpose, such as distributing a file to a commercial entity, and therefore, DS SolidWorks reserves the right to prevent files created by the Software from being read by commercial versions of the Software. You may not sell, license, sublicense, assign, transfer, lease or rent (including via an application service provider (ASP) or timeshare arrangement), the Software or the license granted by this Agreement. You may not arrange for the Software to be hosted by an Application or Internet Service Provider or enter into a timeshare arrangement with another party for use of the Software. You may not install or use the Software over the Internet, including, without limitation, use in connection with a Web hosting or similar service, or make the Software available to third parties via the Internet on your computer system or otherwise. You may not modify or make works derivative of the Software or Documentation and you may not analyze for purposes competitive to DS SolidWorks, reverse-engineer, decompile, disassemble or otherwise attempt to discover the source code of the Software, as it contains trade secrets (such as the Software's structure, organization and code) of DS SolidWorks and its licensors.

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Lenny Bucholz Aug 25, 2014 1:34 PM

per the license agreement

OTHER RESTRICTIONS ON USE. This Agreement is your proof of license to exercise the rights granted herein and must be retained by you. Other than as permitted in Article 1 with respect to SolidWorks eDrawings Professional, you may not use any portion of the Software separately from or independently of the Software and other than for your normal educational instructional purposes as described herein (see Eligibility Requirements). This license is NOT available for use by research labs that may be located at or be affiliated with an educational institution. This license DOES NOT grant the right to use files created by the Software for any commercial purpose or enable others to use files created by the Software for any commercial purpose, such as distributing a file to a commercial entity, and therefore, DS SolidWorks reserves the right to prevent files created by the Software from being read by commercial versions of the Software. You may not sell, license, sublicense, assign, transfer, lease or rent (including via an application service provider (ASP) or timeshare arrangement), the Software or the license granted by this Agreement. You may not arrange for the Software to be hosted by an Application or Internet Service Provider or enter into a timeshare arrangement with another party for use of the Software. You may not install or use the Software over the Internet, including, without limitation, use in connection with a Web hosting or similar service, or make the Software available to third parties via the Internet on your computer system or otherwise. You may not modify or make works derivative of the Software or Documentation and you may not analyze for purposes competitive to DS SolidWorks, reverse-engineer, decompile, disassemble or otherwise attempt to discover the source code of the Software, as it contains trade secrets (such as the Software's structure, organization and code) of DS SolidWorks and its licensors.

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Christoph Kukulies @ Lenny Bucholz on Aug 26, 2014 4:13 AM

Thanks for the clarification.

This also means that a model created in an educational environment with the educational version of SW can never make its way into a commercial entity, right?

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Deepak Gupta @ Christoph Kukulies on Aug 26, 2014 7:27 AM

This also means that a model created in an educational environment with the educational version of SW can never make its way into a commercial entity, right?

Yes. You may use the commercial model for education purpose but not the other way round.

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Joe Kuzich @ Deepak Gupta on Aug 26, 2014 9:12 AM

I have heard that your VAR can convert educational files for you under certain circumstances though. Say, if you started out with an educational version and then bought a full version. I have also heard of people asking for the conversion when they use an educational version to learn and then get to a company with a legit copy, but I never heard if they actually did it. I would think the first scenario would be justifiable but not the second. Just my opinion though. It is kind of a bummer though because I would like to develop a library of parts & assemblies that would be mine to use for both learning and that would then make me more efficient at work.

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Lenny Bucholz @ Joe Kuzich on Aug 26, 2014 11:18 AM

Joe,

I worked for the VAR here in AZ many moons ago and we did get SW to convert........ BUT... It was because a student took some files home and modified the parts for work and then they became student\educational stamped. this was the only way because they could prove it from back ups.

SO a word of caution! inform your co-workers and interns of this, as well as what version of SW the files are in once save into newer version, SOL going back.

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Christoph Kukulies @ Deepak Gupta on Aug 29, 2014 3:58 AM

Hi,

I'm coming back again because I need still some clarification or advice how to proceed in the following situation:

A company has developed a product which uses Solidworks (plugins in SW). This is sold to an educational site. The educationial sit is using the student version

(or educational version, whatever it is named).

It is normal that software fails and for the purpose of debugging the software vendor needs the model file.

So what do do now? Is the software vendor violating the license agreement in the moment he reads in the student edition model file?

What would be the solution to this conflict?

Best regards,

Christoph

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Deepak Gupta @ Christoph Kukulies on Aug 29, 2014 4:22 AM

I think this a very tricky situation but this should not mean that vendor is violating the agreement until unless vendor is using those files for other commercial parties.

For e.g. most of the VAR deals with both commercial and educational sites. And some of them also do programming/projects/ etc. for their customers (both commercial and educational). This means they are dealing with both types of files but since they might not be using those (educational) files for their commercial customers they're not violating the agreement.

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Christoph Kukulies @ Deepak Gupta on Aug 29, 2014 4:29 AM

Hi Deepak,

thanks for the answering promptly. Let me add that in this case the company is sort of a research- and OEM-partner to SW. They are reselling the SW OEM-version.

Best,

Christoph

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Deepak Gupta @ Christoph Kukulies on Aug 29, 2014 4:37 AM

This might mean that vendor/company is sort of VAR also, so there should not be any issues.

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Lenny Bucholz @ Christoph Kukulies on Aug 29, 2014 10:12 AM

So is your product going to be sold to commercial users also?

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Christoph Kukulies @ Lenny Bucholz on Aug 31, 2014 8:24 AM

Lenny Bucholz schrieb:

So is your product going to be sold to commercial users also?

Yes

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Lenny Bucholz @ Christoph Kukulies on Aug 31, 2014 11:05 AM

then why are you not using a commercial version, then there wouldn' be any issues

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Christoph Kukulies @ Lenny Bucholz on Aug 31, 2014 1:15 PM

Lenny Bucholz schrieb:

then why are you not using a commercial version, then there wouldn' be any issues

Excuse me, I don't quite understand. My question was, whether one was allowed to use files coming from a student version in a commercial version. That question had been answered already.

Since the company is a kind of VAR the situation has normalized and I advised them to talk to their contact person at SW to clear up this situation.

Christoph

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13 Replies

Lenny Bucholz Aug 25, 2014 1:34 PM
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Correct Answer
per the license agreement
1. OTHER RESTRICTIONS ON USE. This Agreement is your proof of license to exercise the rights granted herein and must be retained by you. Other than as permitted in Article 1 with respect to SolidWorks eDrawings Professional, you may not use any portion of the Software separately from or independently of the Software and other than for your normal educational instructional purposes as described herein (see Eligibility Requirements). This license is NOT available for use by research labs that may be located at or be affiliated with an educational institution. This license DOES NOT grant the right to use files created by the Software for any commercial purpose or enable others to use files created by the Software for any commercial purpose, such as distributing a file to a commercial entity, and therefore, DS SolidWorks reserves the right to prevent files created by the Software from being read by commercial versions of the Software. You may not sell, license, sublicense, assign, transfer, lease or rent (including via an application service provider (ASP) or timeshare arrangement), the Software or the license granted by this Agreement. You may not arrange for the Software to be hosted by an Application or Internet Service Provider or enter into a timeshare arrangement with another party for use of the Software. You may not install or use the Software over the Internet, including, without limitation, use in connection with a Web hosting or similar service, or make the Software available to third parties via the Internet on your computer system or otherwise. You may not modify or make works derivative of the Software or Documentation and you may not analyze for purposes competitive to DS SolidWorks, reverse-engineer, decompile, disassemble or otherwise attempt to discover the source code of the Software, as it contains trade secrets (such as the Software's structure, organization and code) of DS SolidWorks and its licensors.
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- Christoph Kukulies @ Lenny Bucholz on Aug 26, 2014 4:13 AM
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  Correct Answer
  Thanks for the clarification.
  
  This also means that a model created in an educational environment with the educational version of SW can never make its way into a commercial entity, right?
  Like • Show 0 Likes0
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  - Deepak Gupta @ Christoph Kukulies on Aug 26, 2014 7:27 AM
    Mark Correct
    Correct Answer
    
    This also means that a model created in an educational environment with the educational version of SW can never make its way into a commercial entity, right?
    
    Yes. You may use the commercial model for education purpose but not the other way round.
    Like • Show 0 Likes0
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    - Joe Kuzich @ Deepak Gupta on Aug 26, 2014 9:12 AM
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      Correct Answer
      I have heard that your VAR can convert educational files for you under certain circumstances though. Say, if you started out with an educational version and then bought a full version. I have also heard of people asking for the conversion when they use an educational version to learn and then get to a company with a legit copy, but I never heard if they actually did it. I would think the first scenario would be justifiable but not the second. Just my opinion though. It is kind of a bummer though because I would like to develop a library of parts & assemblies that would be mine to use for both learning and that would then make me more efficient at work.
      Like • Show 0 Likes0
      Actions
      - Lenny Bucholz @ Joe Kuzich on Aug 26, 2014 11:18 AM
        Mark Correct
        Correct Answer
        Joe,
        
        I worked for the VAR here in AZ many moons ago and we did get SW to convert........ BUT... It was because a student took some files home and modified the parts for work and then they became student\educational stamped. this was the only way because they could prove it from back ups.
        
        SO a word of caution! inform your co-workers and interns of this, as well as what version of SW the files are in once save into newer version, SOL going back.
        Like • Show 0 Likes0
        Actions
    - Christoph Kukulies @ Deepak Gupta on Aug 29, 2014 3:58 AM
      Mark Correct
      Correct Answer
      Hi,
      
      I'm coming back again because I need still some clarification or advice how to proceed in the following situation:
      
      A company has developed a product which uses Solidworks (plugins in SW). This is sold to an educational site. The educationial sit is using the student version
      (or educational version, whatever it is named).
      
      It is normal that software fails and for the purpose of debugging the software vendor needs the model file.
      
      So what do do now? Is the software vendor violating the license agreement in the moment he reads in the student edition model file?
      
      What would be the solution to this conflict?
      
      Best regards,
      Christoph
      Like • Show 0 Likes0
      Actions
      - Deepak Gupta @ Christoph Kukulies on Aug 29, 2014 4:22 AM
        Mark Correct
        Correct Answer
        I think this a very tricky situation but this should not mean that vendor is violating the agreement until unless vendor is using those files for other commercial parties.
        
        For e.g. most of the VAR deals with both commercial and educational sites. And some of them also do programming/projects/ etc. for their customers (both commercial and educational). This means they are dealing with both types of files but since they might not be using those (educational) files for their commercial customers they're not violating the agreement.
        '
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        Christoph Kukulies @ Deepak Gupta on Aug 29, 2014 4:29 AM
        Mark Correct
        Correct Answer
        Hi Deepak,
        
        thanks for the answering promptly. Let me add that in this case the company is sort of a research- and OEM-partner to SW. They are reselling the SW OEM-version.
        
        Best,
        Christoph
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        Deepak Gupta @ Christoph Kukulies on Aug 29, 2014 4:37 AM
        Mark Correct
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        This might mean that vendor/company is sort of VAR also, so there should not be any issues.
        Like • Show 0 Likes0
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      - Lenny Bucholz @ Christoph Kukulies on Aug 29, 2014 10:12 AM
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        So is your product going to be sold to commercial users also?
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        Christoph Kukulies @ Lenny Bucholz on Aug 31, 2014 8:24 AM
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        Lenny Bucholz schrieb:
        
        So is your product going to be sold to commercial users also?
        
        Yes
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        Lenny Bucholz @ Christoph Kukulies on Aug 31, 2014 11:05 AM
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        then why are you not using a commercial version, then there wouldn' be any issues
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        Christoph Kukulies @ Lenny Bucholz on Aug 31, 2014 1:15 PM
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        Lenny Bucholz schrieb:
        
        then why are you not using a commercial version, then there wouldn' be any issues
        
        Excuse me, I don't quite understand. My question was, whether one was allowed to use files coming from a student version in a commercial version. That question had been answered already.
        
        Since the company is a kind of VAR the situation has normalized and I advised them to talk to their contact person at SW to clear up this situation.
        
        --
        Christoph
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legality question when using model files from the educational version

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