What would you do? - Autodesk Education Stamp

[StephenJ]

This is a real situation at my previous job and I am glad that I do not have to deal with it. Around the time I was leaving my job there was a short time employee, he lasted about 6 weeks, he took files home to work on. That was not a problem and was accepted by the employer. The problem came when he tried to print the the drawings... you guessed it... he had an educational version of AutoCAD at home.
It has been 8 months since I worked there and I found out that they are still dealing with the remnants of the "corrupt" files. It is worse than a virus. I thought I cleaned the files but it looks like I missed one or someone copied info to another location before I cleaned the file. When I was leaving I told the PM's and cad operators not to reference or copy any info from that job. I told them to finish the project, remove it from the server and leave the files alone. I tried to stress the consequences but, it looks like someone copied the wrong information from the wrong place. So, now instead of it being in one job it is appearing in other jobs.

So, what would you do?

[Mike.Perry]

Hi

Recommend your former employer contacts their Autodesk Reseller and explain the situation. The Reseller should be able to supply an official Autodesk Education Stamp removal tool.

Also explain to your former employer that they are strictly breaking the law by using content commercially that was created by an Autodesk Education Product version.

Have a good one, Mike

[JASONM30395]

If they didn't listen to you the first time and you don't work there anymore it's not your problem. Also how do you know this isn't a new string of educational stamps because some other new employee decided to "work from home"?

I would guess it would depend on your relationship with your former employer as to whether or not you want to help out. (Could always charge him a "consulting fee" to go back and clean them up)

[aaronrumple]

Autodesk should be able to supply you with a utility to scan your archives for those files affected by the plot stamp. (Anything that used a block or part of a drawing created in an educational version will be affected.)

EDU-Scan was a 3rd party utility that would scan for affected files, but I think it is only available for rel. 2000 dwg format.

[Steve Johnson]

The later AutoCAD releases (2004 on) provide a warning when such files are opened or inserted. Edu-Scan just provides the same facility for 2000 to 2002.

Disclaimer: I have had nothing to do with this product, but I am involved in other AutoCAD software ventures with the developer, Owen Wengerd.

Note that because of the virus-like nature of this stamp, it is perfectly possible for companies who have acted completely honestly and legally to be infected by it, second, third, or fourth hand, when there is no trace of actual drawing objects created by the educational version.

It is also quite astonishingly easy to clean up the files. I won't say any more for legal reasons, but anyone with one of these files and a few minutes to experiment should be able to work it out.

[rkmcswain]

Hi
Also explain to your former employer that they are strictly breaking the law by using content commercially that was created by an Autodesk Education Product version.
Have a good one, Mike

It doesn't sound like they are willfully trying to use content created in the EDU version. It sounds like they are trying to get rid of it.

Anyway, what (and whose) exact law is being broken anyway? It's just a violation of the EULA, correct? Has there even been a settlement or court decision regarding the commercial use of content created in the EDU version? As mentioned in another post, it's not that difficult to circumvent.

[StephenJ]

I gave them feedback (everyones advice on this thread) but still haven't heard back from them...


... I sent an email and they D/L the software and removed the stamp from their files. So far so good.

[phyllisr]

Around the time I was leaving my job there was a short time employee, he lasted about 6 weeks, he took files home to work on. That was not a problem and was accepted by the employer. ... The problem came when he tried to print the the drawings... you guessed it... he had an educational version of AutoCAD at home.

By now, it seems you have plenty of suggestions to solve your problem. I am with you on one point - even though not "officially" responsible, I'd try and help just as a courtesy. When one person/firm improves, we all benefit and a friendly relationship with a past employer is just good business. One opinion among many...

Anyway, just a thought about working at home generally. We allow our users to work at home and have an AutoCAD installation disk for home users. We did the same for Revit. No one is required to purchase a license of their own. Home users must connect through a VPN to access a license so we have no legal issues - if someone quits or is fired, he no longer has a network password. It makes little difference if connected from home or at the office. Big advantage for employees with working spouses, young children, long commutes or tight deadlines. This also helps reduce problems overwriting files since we can work directly from the network on project files. For Revit, we have users keep a local file at home with the caveat to save to central religiously or risk the wrath of the team.

If I were going to allow people to work at home (and it's a great benefit), I would not let them use a personal copy of the program. I would also make 100% certain that this is understood as a benefit and not an entitlement and that no one is promising to troubleshoot home installations.

This works incredibly well for us (mosts of the time, anyway) and the problems you had are non-existent.

Hope this helps long-term. Maybe share with your previous employer?
PBR