Technical difficulties are a whole other matter. After investigating Emacspeak and the tools required for it's use in a Linux distribution without need for a hardware synthesizer, I found that MBROLA was the missing link. The rest is 100% free. ( Emacspeak and Festival ). I contacted the person responsible for distribution of the free MBROLA and the response is below, followed by my clumsy original message. Basically any Linux distribution that's free for download from popular mirror sites can now legally include the package without any special permission. This includes the likes of Slackware, RedHat, Mandrake etc... Also, If someone can produce a single RPM or a bundle with MBROLA, FESTIVAL and EMACSPEAK, that can be put up for use. Hopefully LSB will let a single package work for all the distributions that don't fall into the mainstream. I consider the legal issue dead at this point. All that's left is the technical mountain to climb. I got this setup working some time ago but that went the way of FDISK when Wendy migrated. I honestly don't recall how I did it, just that it took many weeks of work. If there is anyone who cares to help out, I'll be glad for the assistance. ==== Thierry Dutoit wrote: > > Kevin, > > (sorry, I sent a previous void email...) > > It took me some time to understand your request. > I first thought you wanted to include the sources of MBROLA into Linux >distrributions. > I myself have thought of doing this several times, but a company related to my >universtiy sels mbrola, and has commercial rights on it. > So in a way I no longer have the right to do this. > > What I can do, however, because of the agreement between them and us, is release >MBROLA everywhere I can, provided it is not commercial. > > So it is my pleasure to let you release the software as you suggested : > A blanket > amnesty for inclusion on any CD distribution that is also > available for free on major FTP mirror sites ? YES > > Or maybe; You can distribute this in anyway without special > permission if it is bundled with emacspeak ? YES > > NB : both 'yes' above are under the condition (imposed to me by contract from the >company I mentioned) that the software is reeased with the accompanyig readme file >containing the non-com usage license. Notice this is needed for people to know where >to get voice and language databases... > Another request from me : if MBROLA is being used in a non-command-line way, I'd >like the copyright notice (the one that is produced by mbrola when no argument is >provided) to appear somewhere, as well as the info at the end of each language file >(starting from the name of the voice dba, and quoting what it contains and who did >it) or at least a pointer to the xxx.txt file (xxx being the name of the voice, like >us1, fr2, etc.) > > Do you think they are reasonably feasible? > > (By the way, have you thought of the voice issue? You probably speak english, but >not everyone does...) > > Anything that lets me put it in Debian, Mandrake and Slackware > in one fell swoop. Failing that, I ask for inclusion in Mandrake > NB: I thought mbrola was already in Debian (thanks to Hans Zoebelein, from blinux)... > > Keep me posted about this, of course, and good luck. > > Thierry > ========= [EMAIL PROTECTED] =========================== > Thierry Dutoit NEW Ph: +32 65 374774 > Faculte Polytechnique de Mons NEW Fax: +32 65 374729 > MULTITEL-TCTS Lab, http://tcts.fpms.ac.be/~dutoit > Avenue Copernic, B-7000 Mons, Belgium > -- Today is a gift. That's why it's called the present! > > -----Message d'origine----- > De: Kevin Forge [SMTP:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] > Date: Tuesday, May 09, 2000 12:07 AM > À: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Objet: Can I package and distribute Mbrola. > > I would like to package MBrola for distribution as a part of > various GNU/Linux distributions. Because of the difficulty of > getting the combination of MBrola and EmacSpeak to work properly > I would like to make it prepackaged and selectable at the time > the OS is installed. > > The way the license is worded, it seams I will need to get > specific permission for each distribution ( of which there are > dozens ). Some are totally free, yet available for free and > others are openly commercial. Inclusion of the GNU tools > however forces them to do things in a way that _seams_ to be > in accordance with your intent. > > As such I beg and beseech for permission to do this. A blanket > amnesty for inclusion on any CD distribution that is also > available for free on major FTP mirror sites ? > > Or maybe; You can distribute this in anyway without special > permission if it is bundled with emacspeak ? > > Anything that lets me put it in Debian, Mandrake and Slackware > in one fell swoop. Failing that, I ask for inclusion in Mandrake > > PS : On rereading this it sounds a little like I am making > demands. I am not. It's just that I had a very hard time > setting this up for my girlfriend ( she is blind ) and would > like to save someone else a little of that aggravation. > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------ > > Part 1.2 Type: application/ms-tnef > Encoding: base64
