That's a lot to ask of a non-profit making institution which likely does not have the budget to market its product.
On 9/10/2017 1:07 PM, Josh Kennedy via Talk wrote: > I wonder what VFO would do if NVDA starting eating into their business > profits? If free open source NVDA would become way more popular than > jaws and would still be open source? > > > > > On 9/10/2017 2:54 AM, David wrote: >> Matter of fact, this question was raised a couple of days after the >> anouncement of the discontinued development of WinEyes. I will get back >> to what Doug said back then. First of all, let's take a quick look at >> facts. >> >> Had it been as easy as WinEyes would have been a stand-alone software, >> with all its coding done 'in-house', things would have been pretty easy. >> And had it been that Doug and Dan had been the only ones to develop the >> software, they could have decided whatever they wanted. >> >> Things are not that easy! >> First of all, what doug pointed out, was that to get the better >> functionality of WinEyes, they had to reach certain agreements with - >> for instance Adobe - to get access to third-party software, kind of >> behind the scene. If they open-sourced the code, now these techniques >> might be disclosed to the public, threatening the products of the >> third-party manufacturer. In turn, this of course would lead to people, >> not working on assistive technology at all, to get hold of the key for >> the backdoor of - say Adobe's reader - and use it for unwanted activity, >> or even malware development. >> >> Secondly, WinEyes had a feature of offering you loads of apps. Many of >> them are open-sourced, but WinEyes holds a chance for the app developer >> to cryptize his code, for protecting against peekers. This was a >> benefit, for instance when the app has to access a server, and maybe >> even use some login credencials, to perform the activity. Without me >> knowing for sure, we could think of an app like WeatherOrNot, which has >> to access a server, retrieve weather details, and process them for you. >> Now if the developer has reached a given agreement with the >> weather-server provider, that his app will gain free access, under the >> condition of not disclosing the login credencials, we are in trouble in >> open-sourcing WinEyes. By doing so, we would disclose the cryptizing >> code, opening up for people to break the cryptized code of the app, get >> to the credencials, and then misuse it. >> >> Part of the agreement GW made with their app developers, by providing >> the cryptizing feature, was to keep the app code an enclosed program. >> They might get into legal issues, should they disclose the cryptizer, >> thereby lay bare the very code of the app developer, who in turn might >> sue GW for breaking the agreement. This is kind of backed up, by a >> message Doug posted several years back, when someone claimed they had >> broken the cryptizer. >> >> Furthermore, it has been confirmed from Aaron, that some of the apps >> directly from GW, like AppGet, do hold credencials for accessing the >> servers of GW. It is unlikely that they want to have these credencials >> open-sourced. In particular so, if you remember the attack someone gave >> them a few years back, when the code of the GWToolkit was hacked, and >> gave many a WinEyes user quite a shock the morning they turned on their >> computer, and got a threatening message on their screen. >> >> Mind you, GW got into a cooperation with Microsoft, when they introduced >> the WEForOffice program. Even here, they told that this agreement would >> put them in specially close relationship with the ingeneers of >> Microsoft. Who knows what closures might be involved there, and which >> would be broken, had WE got open-sourced. >> >> Now let's move back to the answer Doug gave back in the spring this >> year. The above is a bit of an elaboration of what he said. You will >> find his answer in the archives, but in very short terms: >> NOPE! WinEyes code CANNNOT go open-source; If for no other reasons, >> due to the infringement of third-party agreements involved. >> >> All of this, actually leads me to once again raising the very question: >> Does VFO even have access to the WinEyes code? >> VFO might have bought AISquared, thereby also the former GWMicro. But >> they might not have bought the copyright of the source-code. And perhaps >> that was never intended either. Seems all they wanted, was to rid the >> market of any competition, period. Who knows, maybe Doug simply hit the >> Delete-key, the last thing before he handed in the key for the Office >> front-door? >> >> And to assume that VFO's tech personel would bother to plow the >> thousands of lines of coding for WinEyes, in hope of hitting the >> technique used to perform a simple task, is out of range. It would take >> hours, days or even weeks, to figure why things have been done the way >> they were. Or, to find the part of a signed contract, that possibly >> could be renewed in VFO's favor. Far more cost-effective, and resource >> sufficient, to simply look at the behavior of the WinEyes product, and >> sit down developing the same bahavior from scratch. Even calling Adobe, >> Microsoft, AVG, Avast and so forth, asking for a brand new contract. A >> contract VFO already has in place. So my big guess is, VFO DO NOT NEED >> the code of the WinEyes screen reader, and never did. They needed the >> market, and that is what they've currently got. >> >> >> On 9/10/2017 3:01 AM, Josh Kennedy via Talk wrote: >> > hi >> > >> > Is there any possibility since window eyes is no longer supported to >> get the window-eyes source code make it open source and put it up on the >> github website? then other developers could keep developing window eyes. >> > >> > >> >> > _______________________________________________ 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
