fredex <fredex <at> fcshome.stoneham.ma.us> writes:
> There IS the tesseract OCR engine, recently released as open source by
> Google. It's available on sourceforge:
sourcefortge.net/projects/tesseract-ocr
Tesseract is _NOT_ Open Source, one essential library included in the tarball
(the neural networks engine it uses) prohibits "commercial" use, where their
definition of "commercial" is very broad (everything except "research and
development"). Thus it is essentially useless for all practical use.
>From the README:
===
Other Dependencies and Licenses:
================================
The Aspirin/MIGRAINES system in the aspirin directory is separately
licensed thus:
#
**************** NO WARRANTY *****************
Since the Aspirin/MIGRAINES system is licensed free of charge,
Russell Leighton and the MITRE Corporation provide absolutley
no warranty. Should the Aspirin/MIGRAINES system prove defective,
you must assume the cost of all necessary servicing, repair or correction.
In no way will Russell Leighton or the MITRE Corporation be liable to you for
damages, including any lost profits, lost monies, or other
special, incidental or consequential damages arising out of
the use or inability to use the Aspirin/MIGRAINES system.
***************** COPYRIGHT *******************
This software is the copyright of Russell Leighton and the MITRE Corporation.
It may be freely used and modified for research and development
purposes. We require a brief acknowledgement in any research
paper or other publication where this software has made a significant
contribution. If you wish to use it for commercial gain you must contact
The MITRE Corporation for conditions of use. Russell Leighton and
the MITRE Corporation provide absolutely NO WARRANTY for this software.
August, 1992
Russell Leighton
The MITRE Corporation
7525 Colshire Dr.
McLean, Va. 22102-3481
===
And that library appears to be the neural network library everything else
depends on. So this is only free for "research and development purposes", thus
not Free Software.
Kevin Kofler
