[DECtalk] question about Kurzweil 1000 voices

[Don]

On 6/15/2021 6:03 PM, Blake Roberts via Dectalk wrote:
> I also concur with what Jake McMahan wrote. I would like to point out that the
> DecTalk list archives are publicly accesible, so anything posted here could
> realistically be visible to anyone on the Internet for decades to come.

Or, *today*.  You have no way of knowing who is subscribed, reading via
Google, etc.

> Regarding Kurzweil 1000: I currently plan to use James and Kurzweil until
> shortly before the Kurzweil 1000 trial expires. I do not intend to ever install
> illegal copies of NeoSpeech voices on my computer. That's my choice. I know
> those voices are *not* free. The Kurzweil trial period enables me to legally
> use James, Kate and Paul during the trial's duration period.

Trials are a grey area.  I've never seen a license say that trials
are limited to "one per customer".  If my disk drive crashes (and
any memory of having installed a trial "disappears"), when I
reinstall Windows, why can't I reinstall the trial, AGAIN?

If I have ten computers, can I install the trial on each of
them -- successively (as the trial for one expires, install a
new trial on another machine)?

Trials are an honest attempt to let you get a REAL feel for what the
product can do.  "Demos" are often too contrived to let you see
how it will address YOUR needs.  The folks making trial versions
of their products know that there are ways around the limitations
imposed by the trial.  But, they hope it is just too inconvenient
to try to work around the limitations -- if you're really interested
in the product (enough that you are willing to go to those lengths
to work around the trial's limitations), then why not just buy it?

Imagine wanting to compare performance of product A to a similar
product B.  It takes some time to be learn to USE product A proficiently.
Likewise, to learn about product B.  Whichever one you try first will
likely have expired before you get around to trying the other.

So, being able to reinstall *both* -- after you've got an idea as
to how to use them -- lets you do a meaningful comparison after
you are up to speed.  Legal?  <shrug>  But, it is within the
SPIRIT of the trials' intents!  (to evaluate against competitors)

> Since Kurzweil costs as much as OpenBook (a competing optical character
> recognition product which does not have NeoSpeech voices), I might not buy
> Kurzweil 1000 for $995. But I definitely like all three NeoSpeech voices.

There are many OCR packages available.  But, I suspect you want the
text automatically fed to a synthesizer and not just stored in a file.