group buy of eagle CAD?

[caress]

would anyone be interested in going in on a group buy of eagle cad?

here's the info:  http://www.cadsoft.de/info.htm
and the pricing:  http://www.cadsoft.de/prices.htm

i'm going to call around and see if there is a student discount rate available, but otherwise it would be great to go in on it with a bunch of people.
if 50 of us get together, we can get the full professional version for only around $180!  that's almost 10x cheaper than the individual price...

i might be into getting just the standard version without the autorouter, too --- that comes to only $60 for 50 users!  cheap!

1 down, 49 to go...  anyone?

edit:  forgot to add that it needs to be the macintosh version - this might put a damper on things... 

(just posted on electro-music.com.  the thread over there)
http://electro-music.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=207469#207469

[caress]

BIG UPDATE!

for anyone interested, i got the price down to where you need only order 2 modules of the PRO edition (so that could be the layout + schematic) for 50% off.
i've updated it so that you can only get this through being an electro-music.com forum member, so if you're interested, sign up there and send me a pm/respond on the thread.
we need only 25 people now, not 50!

it's still pretty pricey, but if you plan on using it a lot, it's a good deal...

thread on electro-music.com -- http://electro-music.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=29130

[railhead]

Are you making boards so big that you need the Pro version?

[The Tone God]

How many licences is this price for ?

Andrew

[Auke Haarsma]

1

[The Tone God]

So is the suggestion here is to buy one licence and pass the software around for everyone to copy ?

Andrew

[Auke Haarsma]

no, the suggetion is to buy 25 licenses (group license) and then divide the total costs by 25.

So instead of each of us buying a single expensive license, we buy 25 licenses at once and get a pretty big discount.

(Just helping to clarify, I am not interested buying eagle. The free version is good enough for me)

[caress]

let me clarify.  (or you can read the electro-music thread to see it all...)

i wrote cadsoft about a group buy for members of the stompbox/effects community.  they offered a deal where, if i can get 25 people to sign up, they will discount the price 50%.  that being said, you MUST buy 2 modules from the PRO version.  so all told, you'll be getting $950 software for half price.  definitely still expensive, but not bad at the end of the day...

if anyone is interested, PLEASE sign up at electro-music and pm me there.  i pitched the deal to cadsoft and after much more interest from the modular diyer's i decided to use that forum as the "community".  it's simpler for them, i'm sure... and more logical for me to have everyone's stuff through one forum.

this is totally legal and cadsoft seemed eager to jump at an "advertising opportunity" such as this - (remember, there are over 9000 members here).  everyone who goes in on this would get their OWN copy/license whatever of eagle for whatever platform they want.

Are you making boards so big that you need the Pro version?

i have some ideas that definitely require more space than the freeware version and the next upgrade is not substantial enough for me to be interested in purchasing it.  i might as well spend another $100-200 and get something that i won't feel a need to upgrade...

[iaresee]

A word of caution: verify that their group licenses are separate licenses that can be distributed geographically without the need for a shared, private network between the users to exist. Most "group licenses" I encounter are floating licenses often based around the nasty FlexLM license model. You have a license server that users point the software at, if the software can check out a license from the server it lets you use it otherwise no dice. I'd make doubly certain that you're going to be handed 50 individual user licenses and not a license-server based solution before you do your group buy.

I'd also check that there aren't export restrictions on the licenses; that you can indeed give them to anyone outside the U.S. (if you're purchasing them from a U.S. location). For example, if you're in the U.S. and you buy 50 licenses and one of the co-buyers is in Iran it'd be prudent of you to check to make sure EAGLE can be exported to Iran before you hand over the license. It's a serious offense to export restricted technology to countries on the export ban list. Not to pick on Iran here, but I just did export restriction training at my job and it was a country name on the ban list that I happen to remember for no particular reason at all...

Just my $0.02. The CAD tool industry is a software licensing mine field. Sorry to harsh your buzz man.

[caress]

A word of caution: verify that their group licenses are separate licenses that can be distributed geographically without the need for a shared, private network between the users to exist. Most "group licenses" I encounter are floating licenses often based around the nasty FlexLM license model. You have a license server that users point the software at, if the software can check out a license from the server it lets you use it otherwise no dice. I'd make doubly certain that you're going to be handed 50 individual user licenses and not a license-server based solution before you do your group buy.

I'd also check that there aren't export restrictions on the licenses; that you can indeed give them to anyone outside the U.S. (if you're purchasing them from a U.S. location). For example, if you're in the U.S. and you buy 50 licenses and one of the co-buyers is in Iran it'd be prudent of you to check to make sure EAGLE can be exported to Iran before you hand over the license. It's a serious offense to export restricted technology to countries on the export ban list. Not to pick on Iran here, but I just did export restriction training at my job and it was a country name on the ban list that I happen to remember for no particular reason at all...

Just my $0.02. The CAD tool industry is a software licensing mine field. Sorry to harsh your buzz man.

from cadsoft:
"Recently we received a request from you to consider acquiring a 50 user license for all members in your group to share.  The way we license our program that is not possible.  The license can only be in one location."

instead they offered a discount on single-user licenses... so, i'm pretty sure each person will have their own license, but i'll shoot them a quick email to clarify.
thanks for looking out!