Backing it all up - legal???

[FatTulip]

Hi!

I have recently reinstalled my entire FS2002 and add-ons to reduce clutter, which as many of you can imagine takes a long time. This is especially the case when there are loads of mesh, flightplans, AIRACs, aircraft and liveries, you get my point!

I never want to have to do this again so I collected the INSTALLED files only - not original CD material;

I've managed to pop it all into one massive archive (CAB) which will split over DVDs, with a supplementary set of registry backups for the various add-ons and FS itself.

As I can account for every payware item with an original CD and the rest is freeware, am I breaking any laws in burning it off for MYSELF ONLY as a timesaver?

The way I see it, people back up systems to a secondary HDD all the time as a matter of course. What I want to do is no different except for the type of media I'm using.

[heyer]

>As I can account for every payware item with an original CD
>and the rest is freeware, am I breaking any laws in burning
>it off for MYSELF ONLY as a timesaver?

Well, I'm no lawyer but just ask yourself one question: What is the actual reason behind all those end user license agreements? It's there to make sure that all the developers and distributors can earn their living (and sometimes even a little more ;-) ).

And as long as every single puchased payware software does run exactly once at a time you guard the interests of the developers and distributors. But make as much backups as you want to. You save your properties.

That's the way I see it.

[FatTulip]

Thanks 'Headhunter'!

That's pretty much my understanding too.

This is why I've backed up the important registry entries with it (which I guess will only work 100% on my PC/hardware config).

Does anybody else have $0.02 to put in here. Am I wrong???

[gregorach]

Yes, backup is definitely legal. In fact, you can legally make a single backup copy of any installation media as well - it's a standard practice in the IT industry to copy the installation disk, lock the original in a safe, and do all the installations off a copy. However, the copy protection systems used on a lot of consumer software nowadays makes this impossible ( a violation of your fair-use rights).

[FatTulip]

Thanks Duncan!

Now I know that this is the case, I'll burn the 2 DVDs off. Hopefully it will only take 20 minutes to reinstall all my bits and pieces with all the configurations I like next time around.