[DECtalk] Report of a successful use of dectalk with graphical Linux.

Wed Feb 22 17:40:04 EST 2023

I submitted a licensing issue on the dectalk github site. Since you want
dectalk to be under the gnu general public license so badly... hopefully
this change can be made. If not, I will see what it takes to at least fork
my own copy with the gnu general public license. 

-----Original Message-----
From: Dectalk <dectalk-bounces at bluegrasspals.com> On Behalf Of Karen
Lewellen
Sent: Wednesday, February 22, 2023 17:29
To: DECtalk <dectalk at bluegrasspals.com>
Subject: Re: [DECtalk] Report of a successful use of dectalk with graphical
Linux.

Josh,
A bit of an education for you, even if the only people who cared about
dectalk were those experiencing blindness, which is untrue, that is about 
284   million people on the planet..and that number is a couple of years 
old now..
Those with reading disabilities, an even larger percentage of the world
population use speech as well.  That number alone is about 15% of the U. 
s. population, with that figure dated too..imagine that number in other
countries, or the developing world..
So, no Josh,  you are not talking
about a few people...at all.
Did I also reference those who use speech to communicate?  Folks like
Stephen Hawking?
Nothing about those who can benefit from dectalk is even vaguely a knish
market.
Lastly, it has come to my attention that you are making false statements
regarding dectalk on other lists.
For your information below is just what the  current license says..does not
sound like people who do not care what happens to their program.

Linux for blind general discussion, le mer. 22 fC)vr. 2023 12:44:35 -0500, a
ecrit:
> Josh just posted to the Orca list saying that it's open source, which 
> is technically incorrect until or unless we can get the proper 
> permission, stated in the LICENSE file, that it is legal for us to 
> build the source code and use the software.

The LICENCE file says:

Possession, use, or copying of this software and media is authorized only
pursuant to a valid written license from FONIX or an authorized sublicensor

So yes, you need an actual licence to be able to do anything with the
software.

On Wed, 22 Feb 2023, joshknnd1982 at gmail.com wrote:

> And you do realise the only people who care about decTalk anymore is a
very very small subset of the blind community? You do know that Microsoft
released the windows 3.1 file explorer on the Microsoft store for free and
they open sourced it. and you do know that decTalk is 40 years old right?
Stop! Just stop with all this legal paranoia garbage! Because that's what it
is. Legal paranoia! The big bad decTalk companies are gunna rise from the
grave just to sue some blind people for compiling and using decTalk with
their screen reader on android and they're gunna sue us even more for using
it to play Jim Kitchen's nfl football and press your luck audio games. And I
guess the nfl better go after Jim Kitchen's family since Jim Kitchen has
passed away they better go after his family because Jim Kitchen used
copyrighted playstation sounds in some of his audio games. I guess we blind
folks better be careful... One wrong move, one of these days we'll be
sitting here playing Jim Kitch!
> en's   nfl football and the FBI will be knocking at the door taking away
all our money to pay the nfl and sony for the use of those sounds in his
games. Oh please! Give me a break already! You see I can play the legal
paranoia game also. And don't forget about the people who made the new
espeak variants like bobby and betty. You know they sound identical to
decTalk voices when they read talk or say stuff. Those 70 or so year old
decTalk employees will be coming out of the woodwork any day now to collect
their huge sums of money. After all, how dare you make espeak variants which
are copying our decTalk names and formant algorithms!! Yep, legal paranoia.
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Dectalk <dectalk-bounces at bluegrasspals.com> On Behalf Of Kyle 
> via Dectalk
> Sent: Wednesday, February 22, 2023 12:31
> To: DECtalk <dectalk at bluegrasspals.com>
> Cc: Kyle <kyle at free2.ml>
> Subject: Re: [DECtalk] Report of a successful use of dectalk with
graphical Linux.
>
> Josh Kennedy tapped out:
>> That would be like asking  Deane blazey who is around 78 years old if 
>> I can make a new Braille and speak. I don't even have to ask him 
>> because I know what he's going to say. He's going to say I don't care 
>> do whatever the heck you want.
>
>
> tl;dr, this is a bit of a grey area in copyright law, as the software may
or may not be considered abandonware, so a statement of permission in a
LICENSE, COPYING or similar file will go a long way toward addressing any
legal concerns.
>
>
> There actually is a provision for this in copyright law I think,
especially as it relates to abandoned computer software, games, hardware
specs, etc. This is referred to as abandonware, and it is how many emulators
work, such as our beloved Apple //e MESS/MAME machine. Still, in most cases,
the company behind the software or hardware spec makes a statement
indicating that the product in question is in fact abandoned.
> The tricky thing with DECTalk is that it builds and runs natively, and the
source code can be built into executable binary code that works without an
emulator. There's also the fact that some of the original developers appear
to be working on the code, making it technically no longer abandoned, at
least not by its developers. In this case, I believe the request for
permission still lies with whoever now holds the copyright, whether the
developers currently working on it or whoever or whatever the company became
once it dissolved if in fact it did.
>
> ~Kyle
>
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