MindsEyes: Excellent question. Let's take it a bit further and say that you do NOT own a copy of "X". Your brother doesn't know anything about software licenses, he just buys a copy at the bookstore for your Christmas present. When you get it you don't know it was purchased with a student discount. You register it. Is ignorance an ethical defense? I think ethics must involve a conscious act. But the end result is the same as if I had a student friend buy me the copy. Interesting conundrum. (As best as I can recall, the copy of Rhino I got with my student ID & discount was identical to the regular package: there was nothing that identified it as a student license.)