The 2011 Student versions give you three-year licenses as long as you can prove you're a student. The only thing you need to know is the nag screen which says that Autodesk don't want you to use it for non-educational purposes. I maintain that learning 3d modelling requires practice, and therefore everything you do in those programs can be considered educational.
I use Max 2011 occasionally. It has a REALLY nice optimising feature that comes in handy.
You can grab trials for Max 7 and 8 from the internet if you look around a little. Max 8 is nicer and more stable than 7, though (and it's easier to animate cloth in it). Then it's a case on how you want to get a license, which can be done in numerous ways and obviously I'm not going to promote doing it in an illegal fashion.
If the thing Cyan is currently getting together for release is the plugin source code, this silly situation may soon be over. >_>
