Whats the diference ?
 

on the official web site Maya sells for about 6 thousand. I can get a learning version from a web site that sells learning software for about 300. why is the learning version so much cheaper ? what are the things I cant do with the learning version that I can do with the other version ?

Re: Whats the diference ?
 

you probably cant commercially sell your products if your using the learning version. but its a good point, cause the PLE is free and thats the one where u really cant sell your stuff cause they put all those labels around.

unlimited was around 7k but the maya 7 complete was 2k(still quite a bit of money) you do know you can dowloan the ple for free right?

Yea but its a demo of the ple

Sounds to me like the 300 one could be for students, there's often a discount on software for them... If that's the case, I don't think there's any difference between the 300 one and the one from Alias' website, not sure whether you're allowed to use it commercially though...

Functionally, education versions of Maya are the same as the full commercial versions. It is the licensing that is different. The education versions are only allowed to be used for education purposes (learning, classes, school projects, etc.) and cannot be used for commercial projects.

There isn't a demo of PLE, you download the full software - its free. The ony diffrence with PLE is you have a watermark on renders and in the viewports so it can be used commercially. There might also be a few other minor restructions.

PLE and the education/academic editions are not the same.

How, can they tell your a student? I dont go to school for it ;)

You must provide proof of enrollment at a school when you purchase the software.