Legality of Portable Programs for Windows OS

[chrisinth]

For the last week or so, i have been playing around with a couple of programs which allow you to make normally installed software fully portable, ie, able to run of a thumb drive (or external) without leaving registry data on the machine they were used on. I'll get back to this in a minute.

Success rate with the software i have been trying has been about 60/40 successful. When i say successful i mean not leaving a footprint in the registry of the host machine. And i wasn't successful with all the software i tried to make portable.

Just for educational purposes, i have tried full programs like AutoCAD, CorelDraw, Photoshop, Acrobat right down to smaller programs with great success. (With the exception of Photoshop, all the rest of the programs have licences, but are single user retail licences). i can certainly see this as being a threat to the software owners.

The software that i used to create is available on the net for download, (Cameyo is freeware and works good but is a bit heavy with the packaging) with most created with VMWare Thinapp (ex-Thinstall).

These do work great, but, the question is how legal is it to create these portable apps?

and probably a bigger question would be, if it is deemed as illegal, why is the software available for anyone to make them?

[MJCM]

You have to look at the license of the software individually if it is allowed or not.

Found this (adobe related)

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/25322023/portable-version-of-adobe-software

[chrisinth]

You have to look at the license of the software individually if it is allowed or not.

Found this (adobe related)

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/25322023/portable-version-of-adobe-software

Yep, understand where you are coming from. I have (as most users have) the basic knowledge of EULAs, T&C, etc. for distribution, reverse engineering, source codes and such.

However, as far as i understand, the concept of the programs i mentioned earlier is application virtualization, and would not as such (in my case anyway) be for public distribution but for personal use of an already licensed software. Rules concerning this method seem vague to say the least.

In fact, the recommendations from Cameyo, one of the packaging software mentioned earlier, (although not necessary if you are using a relatively clean machine with updates & AV software off) is to use virtualbox for assembly of the portable package.

As mentioned in the OP, i am just playing around. I will keep (a very few) of the portable apps in my 'toolbox' USB regardless of the legality written into fine print.

Just curious of the actual rules.

[MJCM]

Understood. If you don't start distributing it and making it online available, then Oke I Think

The Guys from PortableApps.com said this about the legality of their software

Yes, all releases here are legal. We respect trademark law and have agreements when necessary (we have permission from Mozilla for the use of the Firefox, Thunderbird and Sunbird marks, for instance). We respect copyright law (we don't repackage closed source software without permission). And we respect open source licenses (you'll find the applicable licenses and notices within each release as well as links back to PortableApps.com where you can download the source from our project servers). We've respected all these from the beginning and will continue to do so.

http://portableapps.com/node/14849

[chrisinth]

Understood. If you don't start distributing it and making it online available, then Oke I Think

The Guys from PortableApps.com said this about the legality of their software

Yes, all releases here are legal. We respect trademark law and have agreements when necessary (we have permission from Mozilla for the use of the Firefox, Thunderbird and Sunbird marks, for instance). We respect copyright law (we don't repackage closed source software without permission). And we respect open source licenses (you'll find the applicable licenses and notices within each release as well as links back to PortableApps.com where you can download the source from our project servers). We've respected all these from the beginning and will continue to do so.

http://portableapps.com/node/14849

Thanks, yes, i have read this (or similar) from PortableApps. One of the reasons i started this thread actually.

However, this is a site that does distribute (make available for download) pre-packaged portable apps with the ability to all work from a control panel to the user's preferences. Slightly different to making your own from 3rd party software.

It was the line (or similar) in their statement: "We respect copyright law (we don't repackage closed source software without permission)" that made me think how legal it is. This to me doesn't say that they can't package said applications.

If it was me making the statement, i think i would have used 'comply with' instead of 'respect' for legal definition. (No, I'm not a lawyer and probably completely wrong with that wording even though it makes sense..................... )

Anyway, thanks muchly for your input MJCM. As stated earlier, i will still continue to carry a couple of the packaged programs in my 'toolbox' as emergency resources. The post wasn't really about abiding by the laws, but curiosity as to the legality of making the apps through freely available 3rd party software.