GregA - interesting...
But, the licence is about having made something using the product, and distributing without first taking a licence out as owning the product in the first place, that is like... I am taking a car to point B from point A, but I will not pay for the Petrol, Car or Highway/Road... [ignoring MOT stuff and Insurance for the time being]
Paying for the Petrol, allows consumption - At the point of refuelling at a pump, you often have the fuel in your car before having paid for it... [Unless its a prepayment Card system] in other words, it is not against the law, but a criminal offence to drive away [take your journey] without first having paid. Goods protection Act I believe...
In that scenario, 3DSMax is the Fuel...
Highway/Road...
This one is a funny one... because I can picture somebody mentioning travelling people not paying for this... let's just stick to local here for the sake of debate...
You pay a TAX to drive your car on constructed roads... even if you live out in the countryside, at some point you will be driving on a constructed road, we all need shopping or have bills/taxes to pay... at some point...
So again, 3DSMax is the Road Tax here, by all means use the road, but it is a criminal offence yet again, [which is against some Law or another again...] to use it without paying the tax for it...
My point here is... By all means the usage of the product for learning is wide open, they allow it... but generating any form of income or even distributing... is against the terms of the licence... as I believe the licence states for
personal educational purposes only... personal does not mean third party...
Ah, shoot it... I give up on this point...
For me, I buy what I use... and I wholly respect creative talent, be it an individual or corporation... if that tool does what I need it to do, I respect their asking price... [should it be too high, I find another tool... it is that simple]
EDIT
I also want to add, these days TIME is also a form of currency too... [Pretty sure it has always been really...]