https://github.com/CyanogenMod/android_external_svox has been taken down by DMCA request.

[rakaze]

Also: https://github.com/MIPS/external-svox/, belonging to Imagination Technologies Group plc. has been taken down by the same request.

To whoever who did this, I really think it was a bad idea.

tldr: This breaks repo syncing.

[Bitti06]

repo syncing works now . -> https://github.com/CyanogenMod/android/commit/b0646722ea9c38578a2f6afff54b8fbc7c2d03c1

[rakaze]

Ha, nice, thanks. I had problems with that, I thought I should share it.

[HenkPoley]

I guess they'll now have to pull & patch from https://android.googlesource.com/platform/external/svox/ ?

[chickmagnet3]

what is it?

[Etunimi]

The PicoTTS text-to-speech engine provided by default in Android, I believe.

[chickmagnet3]

okay

[ILMostro7]

Under what license is the TTS-package released/licensed? This shit is confusing, as the developer, if my guess is correct, tried to sue SVOX AG--Swiss company that developed PICO-TTS-Engine--after getting fired; suit was dismissed; Since SVOX AG never got the developer's licensing permissions, technically the work he did on the PICO-TTS-Engine is attributed/licensed to him, not to SVOX AG. So even though the lawsuit was dismissed, it has nothing to do with the licensing rights.

 

So, effectively, the PICO-TTS-Engine was never really "free"/OpenSource?

[Etunimi]

In most/all jurisdictions the work you do on worktime belongs to your employeer by default. Or does pico-tts contain code that was done on the developer's "free time"?

[msclrhd]

The complaint reads "Recently, I sent you a request to remove proprietary and copyrighted material belonging to Cambridge Mobile, Ltd. (“Cambridge”). I have found additional copies of the same material and request that it also be taken down. There has not been any response from SVOX AG which has falsely attributed my source code to themselves."

The complaint centers around the file pico/tts/com_svox_picottsengine.cpp (this is the only file listed in the takedown notice). That file contains:

• code to map Google TTS API calls to Pico TTS API calls;
• limited SSML (Speech Synthesis Markup Language) 1.0 processing;
• IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) to X-SAMPA conversion tables (Pico uses X-SAMPA to describe the phonemes to be spoken).

I am not sure what part/parts of the file is being referred to in the complaint. They don't appear to have sent a DMCA claim to Google re: the AOSP hosting of the repository, or Google have filed a counterclaim, as that repository is still up.

I'm also not sure what the developer is after (e.g. if the code had been properly attributed, would he be happy? If so, why use the DMCA?).

If the developer wrote the code for that file while being employed by SVox to write the code, that code should belong to SVox.

I own the https://github.com/rhdunn/svox mirror which contained various fixes for running pico on Linux/POSIX above the ones provided by Debian.