Big question is, of course, to what extend VFO really has taken over the Copyright of WinEyes. If you notice in the latest installation, it still says the Copyright is for AISquared. To what extend does VFO own the Copyrights under that company name? An owner might well own the company, and the right to sell and distribute the product, but it might not own the Copyright.
Let's give you an example. In Sweden, Europe, there is a manufacturer of household appliances, worldwide know, named Electrolux. You live in USA, and might well start a company named Electrolux US, which in turn buys just about - OR even ALL - the shares of the Swedish company. You now own the company, but do you own their buildings, their production equipment, or even their copyrights? Not necessarily. Depends all on what exactly is included in the take-over. Even the very designer of the laundry-machine, might be the Copyright holder, meaning that he in fact could let several factories manufacture slightly modified versions of the same machine, without asking you as the company owner. We will turn it all over, and give a contra-example. Canon introduced a portable, book-sized ink-printer, back in 1990. It later on was distributed by Brother, and I do hold HP. Difference was that the original Canon printer had physical buttons, whereas the copy-products had only touch-fields. Oh, yes, and the cover was differently colored from one brand name to the other. Would now Brother, or HP, hold any copyright to the design of the printer? Likely Canon still held its copyright, but the others might have copyright on the midifications in appearance, as well as the modification they had in the drivers or electronic modifications they might have agreed on inside the unit. Each of the actors could have ended the sale of the unit at any given time, leaving the others the fuller market share. Exactly WHAT did VFO buy? The company, OK. But did they buy the actual product? Do they have the code dug down in some drawer? Or, did Doug throw it into his briefcase, the day he cleaned out his office? What was in that merge? My greatest suggestion here, would be if someone would be kind to call the VFO, and ask them straight forwardly, exactly what copyright will be resting on the WinEyes product. Furthermore, it might be worth to ask, to what extend VFO would ever take any steps toward copies of WinEyes. Specially so, since WinEyes at the end was given away, for all Office users. For International users, there might be even more to the story, since they might be using a localized version of the screen reader, and I do not know if the local dealer, or translator, might have some kind of work on the software, that might have been included in the Copyrights. Instead of doing all the speculations here on the list, I do suggest someone check it up, and please come back and let us know your findings. True, copyrights do eventually expire, and for all we know, it might expire soon enough. Patents for instance, sometimes only lasts for a decade. Music might only last for a couple of decades. And according to Gutenberg, I do seem to remember copyrights only goes back to 1937, unless the copyright somehow has been renewed. But even so, the copyright rules might differ from one country to another. Doug did tell me once, that some countries in which WinEyes was being sold, had copyright rules that contradicted those of USA, hence the localized versions of the screen reader would be under special applicable juridistictions. I want to clarify, that I have no intention for anyone to wildly copy the screen reader. Yet, I do hold it would be in place, to get in touch with VFO - and have them clarify exactly what would apply, should anyone help out existing WinEyes users, who would happen to have lost their installation copy. In other words, the way I read this discussion, we are not talking about distributing anything to new, potential users. We are talking about those who already have had a legal attachment to the screen reader, while it was still being developed and maintained. For new, or future users, totally different aspects might be applicable. This might be good to stress, in the query to VFO, as it might affect the very reply given. I am in no position to predict the outcome of such contact with VFO, but I am sure most users of the screen reader might be interested in the answer. David On 9/9/2017 9:43 PM, Lloyd Rasmussen via Talk wrote: > The "just click" may be a patent. In the US, patents expire in 17 > years. But anything copyrighted since 1922 is, I think, still > copyrighted. > > > > Lloyd Rasmussen, Kensington, MD > http://lras.home.sprynet.com > -----Original Message----- From: Olusegun -- Victory Associates LTD, > Inc. via Talk > Sent: Saturday, September 09, 2017 3:20 PM > To: 'Window-Eyes Discussion List' > Cc: Olusegun -- Victory Associates LTD, Inc. > Subject: RE: question about re installing wineyes > > Copyrights can, and do expire! That's why there are so many free > books out > there in the wilderness! Since V F O or whatever name it calls itself no > longer supports or develops Window-Eyes, any copyright it may claim, > if not > now, will eventually become useless and worthless! > > Have you heard of Just Click? Well, Amazon patented it almost forever. > This patent just expired and Amazon can't stop anyone from using or > modifying it for use on any product including the world wide web. > > A good question for V F O or its functionaries will be how to convince a > court that its copyright of Window-Eyes is still valid when the > product is > NO LONGER being developed. Should be interesting, but I believe they'll > lose their teeth in the process! > > Sincerely, > Olusegun > Denver, Colorado > > > --- > This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software. > https://www.avast.com/antivirus > > _______________________________________________ > Any views or opinions presented in this email are solely those of the > author and do not necessarily represent those of Ai Squared. > > For membership options, visit > http://lists.window-eyes.com/options.cgi/talk-window-eyes.com/lras%40sprynet.com. > For subscription options, visit > http://lists.window-eyes.com/listinfo.cgi/talk-window-eyes.com > List archives can be found at > http://lists.window-eyes.com/private.cgi/talk-window-eyes.com > _______________________________________________ > Any views or opinions presented in this email are solely those of the > author and do not necessarily represent those of Ai Squared. > > For membership options, visit > http://lists.window-eyes.com/options.cgi/talk-window-eyes.com/trailerdavid%40hotmail.com. > For subscription options, visit > http://lists.window-eyes.com/listinfo.cgi/talk-window-eyes.com > List archives can be found at > http://lists.window-eyes.com/private.cgi/talk-window-eyes.com > . > _______________________________________________ Any views or opinions presented in this email are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of Ai Squared. For membership options, visit http://lists.window-eyes.com/options.cgi/talk-window-eyes.com/archive%40mail-archive.com. For subscription options, visit http://lists.window-eyes.com/listinfo.cgi/talk-window-eyes.com List archives can be found at http://lists.window-eyes.com/private.cgi/talk-window-eyes.com
