You're not the only one that has concerns about freeware. Since Poser has only given out P3 as freeware on a mag, I think we're safe and hope that CL protects our investment. Some of the higher end programs like Maya, SoftImage, and Max have had to reduce their price to remain viable in the industry. That had to piss off a lot of people, but it was do or die for the companies. Maya, for example, went from 19k to 9k to 5k. Considering modern competition at affordable prices, Maya had to either increase the code, reduce the price, or loose market share. Guess which one they chose?! Electric Image teamed up with DvGarage to offer a dongleless version for a mere fraction of the cost of the current version and it came with 3gigs of video training on the cd set. I have the dvgarage version 2.9 of EI and the demo of version 4 and 5 and the modelers are not all that different. Maya released a PLE for anyone to use. SoftImage has a "Experience" cd that can be ordered from their site for free. LW supposedly has a demo edition that can be ordered but my copy never arrived. Everyone else, Rhino, Carrara, Bryce, Poser, RealSoft, etc,etc, has a downloadable demo. Here's the economics... Hollywood and any other CG company that hires needs to hire people who are talented and trained. No corporation with a profit/loss statement is going to fill up with wannabees who have no idea how to use the software and neither are they going to buy package x because some young buck wants it. You use what the company has invested in or apply elsewhere. That means that a Maya or EIU studo has to find talented folks who are familiar with the program. Some come from school, some are home grown. The home grown often have talent. The schoolies know the software. Neither fits the bill. Have to be both. Schools don't deny access because an applicant can't draw, after all, school is big business as well. So the idea is to provide the software to everyone in hopes that the talented who don't live near a school or who can't afford it will get used to the software and produce wonderful stuff. It increases the hiring pool, it gets more folks to try out brand x and possibly fall in love with it and buy the next version. In time, more talented people will be viable in the market place and when company X says they want to hire a talented artist to work with their invested software they are more likely to fine someone. Remember, if there's no applicants worth a hoot, company X will be pressured to ditch their software and go with a different brand, which is not in the best interest of the software companies who have a foothold for brand X and thus the price reduction or demo availability, etc. Also, for brand Y which is hoping to cash in on Company X's misfortune, a freeware or demo to create new blood is good for gaining the market share. Either way, it means lower prices, more demos, more hiring pool, more sales. And thats economics 102 for the CG industry as I see it.