[nvda] Legalities of IBM Viavoice in NVDA

Hi all,

To develop the IBM Viavoice Outloud driver for NVDA, I used the c header files that came with a version of IBM Viavoice Outloud included with IBM Home Page Reader.

I have just been pointed to a particular part of the IBM Home Page Reader Licence Agreement which seems now to point out that it is actually illegal to do what I have done.

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Restricted Use of IBM ViaVoice Outloud

This program includes the IBM ViaVoice Outloud program as part of IBM Home Page Reader for Windows. Its use is restricted solely for the purpose of providing text-to-speech function for Home Page Reader.

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This doesn't specify whether it is talking about the SDK part, or the runtime part, so I have to assume its both.

My first question is though, if both, then why did the C header files get included with that version of Viavoice Outloud if it is illegal to use them?

I have investigated buying my own copy of the SDK, so at least I would be able to legally work on the driver, but having seen the proice, I don't think I will be doing that just at this time.

You buy it from Wizzard Software (www.wizzardsoftware.com) and it is $295.0 U.S.

What I am currently trying to find out though is whether you can buy individual runtime packages of Viavoice Outloud, because Wizzard Software sells a minimum of 300 (for $1500.00 U.S.) (that is $5 per copy).

So at this point in time, it seems that I guess we may need to remove the Viavoice Outloud driver from NVDA unless we can some how legally get an SDK, and if people are able to buy their own runtime versions also.

There is still a plan in the very far off future to perhaps sell NVDA on a USB key with IBM viavoice included, and perhaps then we can buy the SDK and runtimes of course, but for now, I think we are just going to have to stick with Sapi or other free synthesizers.

BTW, if NVDA was to be sold on a USB key, of course it would be definitly still free to download from the website, people would really be only paying for the USB key, Viavoice and the preparation and packaging and distributing of the product.

If anyone knows of any free synths that we could write drivers for, please let me know.

I would be looking for a free synth that is able to run off a USB key, and of course because of this, had its own specific API, not sapi5 or sapi4 (since these need to be installed and registered in the Windows Registry).

It would need to be very responsive, and also quite a small foot print. Quality is also important, though I would personally much prefer a formant-based synth (like Viavoice/Eloquence and Dectalk) rather than sample-based (like ATNT).

Lets start the search, and hope that we can find a good enough solution for NVDA.

Mick








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