Easy IE installer script

[Mike Hearn]

On Tue, 2003-12-23 at 20:24, Ivan Leo Murray-Smith wrote:
> > I'd like to see the legal text that says they are
> > not redistributable,
> The microsoft windows (Favourite version of 32-bit windows here) license

MSVCRT40/MFC40 aren't components of windows though, they are
redistributable DLLs that come with apps.

> IIRC you need a M$ development tool to obtain a license that allows you to do
> that. Also, such license only allows use for applications designed for microsoft
> windows. AFAIK wine is not a windows app.

Well, I'm pretty sure that sort of clause would be illegal, they can't
say "such and such can only be run on Windows", as that'd be tying a
product to a monopoly. 

If they start claiming that the MFC DLL can only be used on genuine
Windows, then we have much bigger problems than having to pull a
convenience script - that would make many programs unrunnable on Wine
(but of course they cannot say this, so that's not a problem).

> It is, IE is not an app but a OS component, so there are a lot more restrictions
> on IE than on anything else. A solution would be to ask the user to insert his
> windows CD, and just get the files needed for IE installation from there.

Well this is what Microsoft claim, but the distinction has never really
been spelled out. MSN Messenger comes with Windows too - does that make
it an OS component? I'm not sure.

I'm not even sure if a Windows CD has these dlls, as they are intended
to be distributed by apps. It might do, and then yes inserting the CD
would be one solution.

> BTW they already CAN sue you.

Sure, they can sue me anytime for practically anything and I'd probably
be instantly bankrupt just getting to court, so this whole discussion is
somewhat academic.

> No, it would be very easy for them to prove that all vendors that ship MSVCRT
> with there apps have a license from microsoft to do so.

I have an old copy of MSVC++ lying around here somewhere anyway, so I
guess I do have a license. If I can't find it then buying a new one from
ebay or something is not too hard.

The easiest solution is to simply use wget to fetch the files from
dll-files.com : a very silly getout clause that probably wouldn't make
much difference in a court of law, but hopefully we will never have to
find out.

thanks -mike