live-cd distro that writes to cd

[John Macdonald]

On Wed, Mar 09, 2005 at 09:54:02AM -0500, Henry Spencer wrote:
> On Wed, 9 Mar 2005, William Park wrote:
> >       That is, you buy the software once for the USB key, instead of
> >       buying for every machines you use...
> 
> That funny sound you hear is Microsoft having conniptions. :-)

Since installation of an app on Windows involves such things
as updating the registry to inform the OS about the app,
and often also an online registration of the app with MS
(which can include some attempt at identifying the system it
was installed on), simply having a copy of the app on a USB
key mounted on a system is not always going to be the same as
having installed the app on that system.

I'd guess that some of MS's techniques for preventing the
app from being installed multiple times on different systems
(on traditional local disk on each of the systems) will
interfere with a USB copy from working on multiple systems too.
Certainly, they will make sure that future copy protection
deals with this to some extent.  (That's just a guess; I'm
sure that some MS apps have less stringent checking and would
not have problems.)  Someone who has looked into this might
be able to come up with a registry updater that copied the
necessary bits into the registry of a new system.

What they would have more difficulty preventing is having an
app installed along with the OS on aportable bootable device
(either a DVD or USB key) - because that would make almost
everything that distinguishes it is a unique installed system
move as part of the portable media.  There would still be
some CPU fingerprinting possible - usually when you boot on
a convenient system you can't ensure that it has the same CPU
characteristics as the one that the software was installed on.
So, if they make the check that an app is validly installed
include some measure of testing that it is still the same CPU
on which it was originally installed, then they could prevent
even this sort of portability.

Of course, they then run the risk of public pressure when
someone sets up a portable app and MS copy protection makes
such a (legally fair use) activity not be permitted.

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