Re: Windows Distro

[Eliah Kagan <degeneracypressure () gmail 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