Only Nuance can bring legal action, because Eloquence is there product. All other companies have there own contracts with Nuance. The only legal action FS or GW can bring has to be on concepts in the screen reader software.
At 09:01 AM 8/24/2011, you wrote:
Does anyone know whether either Freedom Scientific or Nuance have threatened legal action if a blind individual uses NVDA with Eloquence?Jamal On 8/24/2011 8:16 AM, Jamal Mazrui wrote:Thanks, Alex. Since posting my previous message on this topic, someone sent me the following link to a blog post on the NVDA site: http://www.nvda-project.org/blog/NVDAAndEloquenceSituation I am still interested in further discussion if anyone has additional information or perspective. Jamal On 8/24/2011 7:57 AM, Alex Hall wrote:My understanding is that it is not illegal. The illegal part is the step many take to accomplish it, loading an illegal dll to provide Eloquence speech. This dll is from the makers of Eloquence, but is passed around the internet for free, even though the makers should be getting their royalty for every time it is used. In fact, there is a survey by NVDA makers to determine interest in providing Eloquence for NVDA (at a cost). Of course, that would be perfectly legal, since NV Access would pay for the distribution rights, then recoop the cost from users' paying the one-time fee for Eloquence under their copy of NVDA. On 8/24/11, Jamal Mazrui<empower@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:I am trying to understand the legal issues around use of NVDA with the Eloquence speech installed with JAWS. I have heard that it is technically easy to make this work, thereby substantially improving the NVDA experience. On the blind-mozilla list, however, it was stated that this is absolutely illegal to do, and even discussion of the topic was prohibited on the list. I did not realize this was such a controversial topic, but trust that we can at least discuss it here, being careful as appropriate not to encourage particular actions. As I think we know, just because a company says that some activity is an impermissible use of software does not make it so. For example, I have heard of the "Jailbreak" issue with the iPhone, and that this has been deemed legal by an authoritative body, despite initial protests by a company. Am I understanding that right? So, I am interested in any official statement that asserts the illegality of using Eloquence with NVDA. Can someone point me to a web page? Please understand that I am not encouraging such activity, especially since my knowledge of the topic is limited at present. I do think, however, that if people are being told that something is absolutely illegal that they deserve some kind of authoritative reference for that assertion, given the corresponding implication that one would be a criminal to do so. Jamal __________ View the list's information and change your settings at //www.freelists.org/list/programmingblind__________ View the list's information and change your settings at //www.freelists.org/list/programmingblind__________View the list's information and change your settings at //www.freelists.org/list/programmingblind
__________View the list's information and change your settings at //www.freelists.org/list/programmingblind
