Posted 08/02/2009 at 10:21:46am

What's fair is judging the reports on the merits and not on who said them.  It doesn't matter if the LiberKey guy's ex-wife was the complainant, what matters is that the complaint is valid.  Let's compare:

PortableApps: Has the license mentioned on each app's homepage

LiberKey: Nothing

PortableApps: Has a link to the source code for each app on the app's homepage that they host in their own SourceForge project

LiberKey: Nothing

PortableApps: Has the source for the launcher for each app and a file (other\source\appsource.txt) with a link to the portable app's homepage to obtain the source for each app, which they host on their own SourceForge project

LiberKey: Has no source for their launcher and has a file with a link to the original application's source code (which they won't host themselves)

PortableApps: Attributes all contributors on the app pages, on their team page and in the copyrights and source code included with all their apps

LiberKey: Has taken PortableApps' code and removed the branding, GPL and source and passed it off as their own on multiple occasions

PortableApps: Has permission from Mozilla to distribute Firefox, Thunderbird and Sunbird and says so on their page

LiberKey: Has no permission from Mozilla and is distributing Firefox, Thunderbird and Sunbird illegally and won't even answer this question when asked

PortableApps: Doesn't yet distribute Google Chrome or Opera due to licensing issues (at least that's what it looks like from some forum posts)

LiberKey: Distributes Google Chrome and Opera without permission in violation of their EULAs

So, who cares who originally reported it.  What matters is if LiberKey is violating the law, copyright, trademark and open source licenses.  And it looks like a yes to all those.

Posted 07/31/2009 at 03:53:49pm

I only meant that liberkey hasn't really done anything unique or built much themselves. It's the same menu that winpenpack and lupopensuite use (and they didn't make it either).  If they are now admitting that they're just packaging other people's work, that's nice.  It still doesn't excuse liberkey stealing all of portable app's stuff last year and then lying about it.

Posted 07/31/2009 at 06:17:59am

I tried LiberKey last year and it was all portableapps's software that opendev aka chris peuch had tried to pass off as his own.  While spamming various forums about his little liberkey thing, he was called out on it, and he lied about it.  Looks like he's still trying to lie his way out of a corner he backed himself into.  Liberkey is mostly work done by other people that is packaged illegally.  The menu is just Asuite.  The file associations are just something called Cafe.  He didn't write either of those either.  He won't provide proof of permission for Firefox or other stuff because he doesn't have it. He's just a sad little open source and freeware leech trying to make a name for himself by stealing other people's hard work.

Posted 07/06/2009 at 07:13:34pm

An easy way to verify it is to check with Mozilla and ask if LiberKey has permission to modify and bundle Firefox.  The trademark guidelines are pretty clear and say that you can only distribute the installers from Mozilla.  I know PortableApps has permission to repackage Firefox because Mozilla has mentioned them on blogs and in interviews and the Firefox Portable page on PortableApps says "Mozilla®, Firefox® and the Firefox logo are registered trademarks of the Mozilla Foundation and are used under license." I don't see any similar permission granted to LiberKey.  And I really doubt that Mozilla would let him repackage Firefox with closed source code they can't look at and with things like the anti-phishing filter disabled.  Same with Thunderbird.  And Sunbird.

Ask Opera if LiberKey has permission.  Ask Google.  Ask uTorrent.  Ask about any of the other freeware apps bundled in violation of the EULAs.  I'll bet you 10 bucks they all say no, no permission was granted.

And LiberKey can't even bundle open source stuff right.  He adds closed source stuff to it and then refuses to provide the source code himeself.

And yes, check with something like RegShot to see all the stuff LiberKey's various 'apps' leave behind.  I'm happier with something like PortableApps that does public testing, has public bugtracking and makes all their source code available... and actually gets permission from publishers.

Posted 07/06/2009 at 04:58:17pm

I can't believe you're reporting on LiberKey without researching it a bit.  LiberKey is basically an illegal combo of a ton of different software from different publishers all done without their knowledge by one guy.  The menu is just ASuite (an open source menu).  The file associations are just Cafe (another open source menu).  His versions of Opera, Firefox and Chrome?  He didn't get permission to do them.  And last year, his entire suite was all stuff stolen from PortableApps.

To make things even worse, his stuff isn't entirely portable and some stuff doesn't work when you move PCs.  It also leaves some of your personal info behind, which is just about the worst thing a portable app can do.  The stuff he adds is pretty badly coded and he forces you to give him your email address to even use it (like you'd trust this idiot).