Lightroom and Elements Licenses.

[Schmenz]

I have searched this forum and google for days but I am still struggling to determine the number of licenses you get with each product.

I am about to buy Lightroom and Elements before my student ID runs out at the end of the month.

Now this is where it gets tricky..

I need a copy and my dad also wants a copy. I have a mac and he has a PC so we would need to buy the boxes.

I have read on the adobe site that you can install the product on a second computer but they can't be used at the same time. Being for 2 separate people, I cannot guarantee that they will not be used at the same time.

So my question is this.. would they ever know if they were being used at the same time?

Otherwise I would have to buy 2 copies of each.

I also read in another thread that the student copy has a single license and the education copy had more. But I havent been able to find that information anywhere else. Can anyone confirm or deny this?

Being such expensive software and owning $23 to my name with maxed out credit cards (aahhh Y-genners) I want to get it right and the cheapest way from the start.

(I know there is free software out there and I have iphoto (never opened it) and The gimp would be my choice in the free ones but I've been researching for a week now and Ive decided on this. Dad wants to buy me Lightroom for Christmas and while Im a student, but I want the cheapest method for his money.

[ricktas]

You need a separate licence for each one.

The licence lets you put the program onto two machines, BUT you cannot be using the same software at the same time, on both machines. So the licence would be for you to use it on your laptop in the morning, and your main pc in the afternoon. As you want to use the software on two computers, used by two different people, you will need to buy two copies.

[ricktas]

note that any comments on AP related to illegal activity is not allowed. So be careful when you ask things like "So my question is this.. would they ever know if they were being used at the same time?".. you are suggesting illegal activity, which could see you banned. Also note that this forum is public, so people from Adobe are quite able to see what you wrote here. it would not be the first time I have been requested by authorities to provide member information to them for an investigation.

[Schmenz]

sorry i wasn't intending it to come across like that. if i was intending to obtain it illegally i know exactly how to but am choosing to buy it and use it the proper way.

The main use would be on my MBP. But having it on the other pc in the house would be handy as it has a bigger screen and is more powerful. (And my MBP drives me insane sometimes as I am still adapting from pc). The adobe site says it can be one 2 computers and both would be registered under me. We share the computers in the house alot so having it on both would be ideal. (This is what I meant when I said my dad wants a copy. Sorry I was trying to dumb it down to save a long winded explanation. But to basically have it on both the mac and the pc so that whichever computer I used, it was on it.)

I'm not intending on illegal activity but when we use each others computers, we use each others licenses to those programs all the time. eg I would be using his Office licence on the pc and my office licence on the mac.

Installing 2 copies of each on each machine so that I have a license on the pc and a license on the mac and dad has a license on pc and mac doesn't make sense, and I don't even know if that is possible. But that is the only way I can see that I could do this legally, and avoid problems of the rare possibility where we may open them at the same time.

Sorry for being long winded and confusing. But thank you for your help :)

As I said. I am not trying to do anything illegally. (Well not intentionally, as my first post can sound like I was). Hence why I am trying to work out the licenses. :)

ahhh if only they would release a product with 2 licenses it would solve all my problem. But from your post it sounds like they don't.

Would installing it twice actually work? (I mean with 2 bought copies)

[Allann]

Would installing it twice actually work? (I mean with 2 bought copies)

No, unless you install it with seperate accounts, I assume you both log in with your own accounts on the home desktop, in which case you select "Just for me" in which case the licence key is assigned to your account. But to be safe, buy 2 copies and use one key on one machine, and the other key on the other machine.

[Schmenz]

just bought 2 of each. do i need to install 2 copies on each computer? is that possible? or can i use the copy on the pc under dads license without it being classed as illegal activity.

[Schmenz]

ooo sorry just saw your post allann. Thank you.

we dont use separate accounts. (I wouldnt even know how to do that on a mac!) Ok will install one on each.

Thanks :)

[maccaroneski]

In answer to your original question, you only get one license with each product. Certain products do come with multiple licenses at times (such as say a Windows Family Pack which contains three licenses), however in general for boxed software, you can assume that it's one license per box unless clearly stated otherwise. Now in certain circumstances, and as you have alluded to, that license can give you various usage rights. For example Adobe's EULA (http://www.adobe.com/products/eulas/pdfs/Gen_WWCombined-CS3-20060817_1651.pdf) at section 2.4 gives you the right to install on a second PC, but this is just an additional usage right rather than a second license.

This may sound like a fairly semantic distinction, but I think that it really encapsulates the concept I'm trying to illustrate above, namely, that the one license in essence means that one person is entitled to use the program, irrespective of how many PCs / macs you install it on. Bearing that out are the restrictions that surround the right to install on a second box contained in that EULA, namely that the second copy needs to be for your exclusive use, and obviously if that is the case, then you can't physically be using both copies at once (although they do throw that rule in there just to make sure).

The flipside is that in theory you could use both the same installation on one PC if you both had licenses - it is the use of the program that is licensed rather than a particular copy of the software. That would be fairly easy to achieve with Lightroom - just have one catalogue each.