Friday, January 7, 2011

Clarity on Aperture at $80 and Licensing Issues

So, during my investigation into this software I had two questions that I felt compelled to ask about.  The first, whether the $80 version of this professional grade application was the exact same as the $200+ version available from Apple in disc form?  And what kind of licensing did the downloaded version entail?

The Mac Genius looked up the information and informed me that this was indeed the actual version of the $200 software and not an Academic version either.  So it will be upgradeable in the future. 

In regards to the licensing agreements, he stated that according to Apple, if you - the license owner -  own more than one Apple machine ie. Mac Desktop and Mac laptop, you have the ability to use the program that you have downloaded on both machines without having to pay for the program again.   I asked if that meant that the Mac App store, in similar fashion to the iTunes store, would recognize that I downloaded this once before and not charge me another $80 for the software?  He stated that he was not certain about this, but stated that it should recognize it by the Apple ID.  He recommended downloading the software and networking it or placing it on a disc and installing it on the other machine.

You know, I may start liking this Mac App store after all.   I am not happy about giving up my freedom but there is a certain amount of clarity in this way of doing business.  For one thing, if this is as minimally restrictive as it sounds, I think that the App store will be another major hit for Apple.

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