Originally Posted by noone1

True, but very little harm is being done. It probably isnt worth the effort. The time and money needed would not be worth stopping some mech engineering major from dicking around at home.

And what if that kid becomes good with it and decides he wants to start a business or gets a job using it? Surely he would now buy the software if he was starting a serious business and surely he is helping Autodesk by getting a job using it professionaly. So they let the kid play with it, he becomes interested and buys it or works for a company who buys it for him. It's a possible situation. And if he loses interest in it instead, so be it. Didn't hurt Autodesk.

I just don't see much harm done to companies who offer professional software that requires years of training and experience to use.