Re: Windows Distro

From: Eliah Kagan (degeneracypressure_at_gmail.com)
Date: 11/11/05

  • Next message: ADT: "Re: Core Impact references" 
    Date: Fri, 11 Nov 2005 13:47:39 -0500
To: security-basics@securityfocus.com, pen-test@securityfocus.com

    Javier Fernandez-Sanguino wrote:
    > As for the Microsoft world, for one, have not seen any. The Windows
    > EULA forbids this kind of stuff so I don't believe you'll find it,
    > unless Microsoft himself develops a live-CD like or somebody risks
    > legal action from Microsoft by putting up a live-CD version of its OS.

    Just a point of clarification here, the Windows EULA does not forbid
    making a Windows LiveCD. If you make a Windows LiveCD and distribute
    it, then that would violate the EULA and invite legal action from
    Microsoft, just as if you distribute images of the Microsoft Windows
    install disc, you're violating the EULA (or, if you haven't agreed to
    the EULA, you're still violating Microsoft's copyright) and inviting
    legal action from Microsoft.

    (In Windows XP and higher, the install disc *is* a
    LiveCD--"Preinstallation Environment" is so named for this
    reason...though BartPE is not actually a preinstallation
    environment...)

    It is legal to tell people how to make LiveCD's using their install
    discs, and it is legal to provide people with tools to do so, provided
    that you're not violating Microsoft's copyright or the Windows EULA.
    Thus BartPE is legal, but if you make a Windows LiveCD with BartPE and
    *distribute* it, then that violates Microsoft's copyright and the
    Windows EULA. (If you're making a Windows LiveCD using BartPE, you've
    almost certainly agreed to the EULA implicitly in the process, at
    least under the conventional interpretation of copyright as applied to
    software.)

    Of course, to use the Windows LiveCD that you made, you have to have a
    license to use the Windows operating system that you used to make it.
    To use n copies of any Windows operating system concurrently, the EULA
    requires that you have n licenses. Thus, if you have only one license
    for Windows and you make a LiveCD out of your (properly licensed) copy
    of Windows, you must stop using your copy of Windows while you're
    using the LiveCD.

    For more info on legal issues associated with BartPE, see:

    http://www.nu2.nu/pebuilder/#legal

    -Eliah

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