Is it necessary to have a license or subscribe to autodesk?

I've been looking into purchasing either Maya or Softimage from autodesk but after looking into the products, I continuously see the words 'license' or 'subscribe.' I don't want to end subscribing to some newsletter thing or making monthly payments for an already outrageously expensive product and I was wondering what exactly it means to have a license for autodesk. Is it a license to even have to the product in my possession, make it usable, or post stuff created through the product on the internet w/o some kind of law suit? Basically, I know nothing so any information offered would be nice.