Wikipedia
DreamSpark is a Microsoft program to provide students with software design and development tools at no charge. The program was originally available for university/college students in Morocco, Belarus, Belgium, China, Finland, France, Germany, India, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Tunisia, the U.K. and the U.S., but has now been expanded to more than 80 countries and is offered to many high school students. To register, students must visit the DreamSpark website and verify their identity. If an institution is not listed on the available list, the user may manually verify their student status by uploading a proof such as an ID card.
The DreamSpark program was announced by Bill Gates on February 20, 2008 during a speech at Stanford University. It is estimated that up to 35 million students will be able to access these software titles free of charge through this program.