The software itself is worthless without a serial number, the code for which you’d normally have to pay. You’ve got the software, the serial numbers, and the activation. Some people might say, “Oh, but that just means that what you’ll be doing is unethical. If you’re none of those things then you don’t qualify. The basic requirements, afaik, are that you either have to be a student at an accredited institution, a teacher, or are mentoring somebody in an Autodesk sponsored contest or event. My question is: Is it legal to download the free student version of Maya, when you’re not a student? Even as a high school student you’re okay.

You’re 14 years old and not attending school of ANY kind? Shouldn’t you be in, like, 9th grade or something? I don’t think that Autodesk is specifically saying that you’ve got to be in college or art school of any kind.

I am not going to use it for commisions or earn money on anything I do in the program, but I’m only 14 years old.

Now my advice is to take up some educational study, be it a short training program of choice or similar initiative prior to acquiring a student licence and if nothing else eventuates then perhaps this self learning option might lead to other possible opportunities as yet unseen. Furthermore a few characteristics they will reasonably expect from their colleague includes, integrity, honesty and most of all reliability in terms of optimised resolution to an assigned task within a production pipeline. But that being said I urge compliance simply because I believe at your stated age, beginning a possible learning path en route towards a potential CG industry career, implementing any application under false pretences is strongly ill advised behaviour, since your implied end goal seems to suggest working alongside others in a team. Well ethically it’s the responsibility of the end-user too comply with a given software product’s terms and agreements (EULA) even though to my knowledge ADSK foregoes verification of a ‘student’s’ status at the point of installation, so effectively an individual not enrolled in a course of study is still able too acquire an educational licence for three years.

Autodesk maya student