[DECtalk] Dectalk 4.6.1 SAPI from Enable Rehab

[Tony Baechler]

Unfortunately, it really doesn't matter what you or I think.  The law is the
law.  Just because it's abandonware and/or a company no longer exists
doesn't make it legal to use.  People who choose to use this particular SAPI
version could be sued if the rights holders want to make an issue of it, so
I wouldn't advertise using it on a public mailing list.  If we're talking
about a hardware platform which no longer exists like the Apple II, you
might have a point as obviously old Apple software isn't going to be for
sale again any time soon.  However, since the company who owns the rights to
DECtalk still exists, Enable Rehab is gone and the license is
non-transferrable, it's illegal for people to use it unless they either get
their own license or negotiate with the company holding the rights.

With that said, it would be great if they would either sell the rights to
someone else who can make better use of the DECtalk technology or at least
make a statement that the blind can use it without a license, but neither is
likely to happen.  The only way that might happen is if a group of people
pooled their money and outright bought the rights.  I would be willing to
donate to such a cause, but I wouldn't want it to go the way of Enable
Rehab.  It would be nice if one of the screen reader manufacturers would buy
the rights, but that's assuming that they would sell which they probably
wouldn't.  A single individual contacting them probably wouldn't do much
good since they don't have the money to spend and they don't have a company
behind them.  Maybe a Kickstarter project is the answer which would
additionally allow outside donations, again assuming they would sell the
rights in the first place.  If enough people contacted them, maybe it would
do some good.

On 2014-07-13 04:30 PM, Nick Gawronski wrote:
> Hi, Once a company no longer exists my point is yes the license might say
> something but if no money is being collected for this software and as the
> ammount of blind users who wish to use this product is low I don't see any
> major problems with us using this product.  Really Fonix should release a
> sapi dectalk synthisizer as if this was done then we could buy this product
> from a company that is a legal source for the product and use it even
> allowing screen readers to include dectalk in their products as is already
> done with window eyes.  Sapi has it limits and really until we get something
> that is better then sapi 4 and 5 I think that using these add-ins for the
> screen readers is our best option as I find that you get more control over
> the synthisizer such as more rate and pitch settings.  Everyone has their
> own views and I do like sapi voices but they have their limits to what
> settings can be set for them and usually they are not of the best control
> that a screen reader can use with them.  Nick Gawronski
> On 7/13/2014 12:08 PM, brandon T wrote:
>> Hi,
>>
>> Yes, and they told me this is not a legal option because Enable Rehab
>> doesn't exist anymore, therefore the right to use this with any screen
>> reder is not valid anymore. The license states this is only to be used
>> in a development environment. Just because Enable Rehab had this
>> right, that doesn't mean it is automatically transferred.
>>
>> Do you have any thoughts on this? We would need to contact Fonix to
>> see if this is correct. Is the creator of that Dectalk SAPI from
>> Enable Rehab on this list?
>>
>>
>>
>> Thanks,
>>
>> Brandon
>> _______________________________________________
>> Dectalk mailing list
>> Dectalk at bluegrasspals.com
>> http://bluegrasspals.com/mailman/listinfo/dectalk
> 
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-- 
Have a good day,
Tony Baechler
tony at baechler.net