Academic Upgrades

[for_mlove]

I'm considering a purchase of FCP and am wondering about academic upgrades. Right now I qualify for the academic version and was going to go that route but saw some posts making me think if I did that I couldn't upgrade. According to the Apple site, owners of FCP 1, 2, or 3 couldn't upgrade if they had the academic version. However, according to this upgrade form, http://images.apple.com/universal/crossgrade/pdf/FCP4_HD.pdf it seems academic versions of FCP 4 would qualify. I know I will want to upgrade when 6 comes out so... does anyone know with any certainty whether buying 5 academic now would prevent me from being able to do that without paying full price again?

 

[Johnnyfive]

Double check this, but I think it is possible to upgrade from an Academic license, but the fine print states that the upgrade is still under the original Academic License Agreement, which means you must qualify and not use the software outside Academic circles. In other words, an upgrade does not automatically "upgrade" you to a Commercial License. Not too sure, but Im sure someone else will chime in on this issue.

 

[Cheesesailor77]

I believe this is yet another promotion to get everyone up to 5. So think of it as the exception rather than the rule. Apples been doing lots of crazy stuff to allow people to upgrade to 5. Including allowing people who paid $200 for Soundtrack Pro to upgrade to FCP studio for only $300.

So I would think that beyond this promotion the rules still apply, if you get the academic version (like i did) you will not be able to upgrade to 6 without paying the full box price.