Distribute ADB for Android

Question

Is it allowed to distribute ADB for Android to end users?

Is there a distribution / package that can be included in the installer?

We plan to use it to provide a USB connection between our Android application and the desktop application. Are there any more efficient ways you can suggest to easily install a USB bridge in this situation?

Answer 1

I believe that distributing the Android adb executable is completely legal. The SDK license agreement for android sdk at http://developer.android.com/sdk/terms.html has the following sentence:

3.5 The use, reproduction, and distribution of SDK components licensed under an open source software license are governed solely by the terms of this open source software license, and not this License Agreement.

And since the adb client located under the android tree on the / system / core / adb platform is licensed under http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0 , this should be completely legal.

But I'm not a lawyer, so do not take my word for granted and do not seek professional advice.

Answer 2

Just to close this problem and possibly help someone else with similar questions in the future:

It seems that the Android SDK (which includes ADB) is not allowed for redistribution. Quote from Androids T & C : 3.3. Except as required by applicable third party licenses, you may not copy (except for backup purposes), modify, adapt, distribute, decompile, reverse engineer, disassemble or create derivative works of the SDK or any part of the SDK, except as required by applicable third party licenses , you cannot download any part of the SDK to a mobile phone or any other hardware device other than a personal computer, to combine any part of the SDK with other software iem or distribute any software or device comprising a part of the SDK ".

Answer 3

AOSP includes an ADB source and has fairly liberal licensing terms, so if you determined that they were compatible with your needs, you can create ADB yourself. It's a little difficult to build it without creating the rest, but you can do it if you carefully construct the Makefile and move some of the inclusions and dependencies from the utilities folder.