Hello,
There seem to be more and more places distributing these apps without
any legal consequences, has Google's restrictive licensing
restrictions changed? Perhaps in ice cream sandwich? Or maybe Google
have stopped caring about infringements?
e.g.
http://www.chip.de/downloads/Google-Play-Store-APK_54923571.html
http://www.android-x86.org/ - not documented anywhere but was in the
android-x86-4.0-RC1-asus_laptop.iso image I downloaded. Which is odd,
because the iso is built directly from the source code, yet, as
expected, I don't see this apps in the source code.
ClockworkMod - apparently has option to download and install these
apps (I haven't checked).
http://wiki.cyanogenmod.com/wiki/Latest_Version/Google_Apps - has
links to where you can download them.
This last cyanogenmod link above suggests it is fine to download them
separately, just not distribute them with Android.
I asked about this on the android-x86 mailing list - which ironically
is hosted on Google's severs; the only response I have got so far is
"ther must have been a change... German popular computzer magazine
Chip also offers Google Play market apk as download:".
https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups#!topic/android-x86/f1TWmYVjH-A
So wondering what the story is? If Google had changed the licensing, I
would have expected to see more about this.
Thanks
--
Brian May