Darrell Shandrow Hilliker

Today’s KDD: Jaws Attacks; Take the Byte out of Crime

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Thanks to Karen for this wonderfully creative, poetic contribution.

On Thursday May 17, we received some disturbing News,
Freedom Scientific, they did choose,
To Sue Serotek, they want to devour,
Found out this at a late hour,
This made me angry, yes indeed,
If you have not already, do read,
The lawsuit that was filed, and the accusations made, more to this than
meets the eye,
Not sure why?
Suing for Trademark infringement,
Much time and resources spent,
One can only speculate and hypothesize,
That they feel threatened by a company of smaller size,
Whom is making tremendous progress in the field of blindness,
And Freedom Scientific, this, they could not digest ,
Could not stand the heat,
Worried , they can not stand on their own two feet,
So, Brutaly attacked their competition pushing them under,
Rather, then learn from their own mistakes and blunders,
Makes one wonder,
What their reasons are for filing this Suit?,
For giving Serotek the boot?
Why, does FS Byte?
This is not right,
Why are they drawing blood?
Slinging them through the mudd?
Eleminating them as a valuable player , wanting them to sink,
Not sure why, what do you think?
What is your take on this story ?, I was shocked,
The blind Community, this should rock,
Hits Matt and Mike to the core,
After being bitten by Jaws, they struggle to swim to shore,
Serotek,is missing a paddle,
Now, they are fighting a battle,
Swimming upstream,
Together, will stay the team,
And continue to give Freedom for all
Through Freedom Box and Ram and Rim,
Things, now, look grim,
However, with these products as well as System Access, as a third
screenreader tool,
They will continue to stay in the school ,
And despite, taking a dive,
Back On the surface , they will arrive,
And hang in there, with GW Micro, , the Guys Aaron and Doug,
They wil not pull the plug,
Hang in there, do have hope,
Some of us in the community, will throw you a rope,
Do not want to see you sink, capsize,
Yet, to continue to develop products along with Window eyes,
Hope the sharks die,
Fail does, Jaws for Windows ,
Freedom Scientific, stay on your Toes,
You may not be as stable,
Not as able,
Watch out, Broken my be your fin,
This, you may not win,
And though, you play with the Whales,
The other fish,may not bail,
And, all of us, in the community ,need to read our mail,
read blogs and listen to podcasts,
Freedom Scientific, you may be a thing of the past,
And, though, Serotek right now, you may not be in the leed,
FS, bate, we are not going to feed,
To enable you to stay strong,
What, your doing is very wrong.
Nothing wrong with healthy competition, Yet, another,just don't sue,
Hoping your opponent will toss in the towel, and say, they are
through,
Assuming, they will have enough?
They are tough,
And will give you a runfor your money,
What, your doing it is not at all funny!
Those of us,whom are blind, need to be united and work together,
Help Serotek through this stormy weather,
Ahead, there will be rough seas,
Look out, they could bring you to your knees,
There will be strong wind, rain and Thunder,
You could go under,
You never know,
How this lawsuit will go
You could regret, the Lawsuit you did file,
Some of us will go the extra mile,
On your feet, you may not land,
I know, what I say, holds no wait, does not mean a thing,
And noone may care,
this KDD I do bring,
Yet my view on this, wanted it to be known.
My thoughts I do share,
Concerned about the state of Affairs,
In this industry ,
All who cannot see,
Do all that you can,
If you are a Fan,
And Believe in Serotek,
Don't allow them to stick out their necks,
See what you can do,
To assist them through,
Support we do need to send,
A hand, lend,
Get the word out, maybe Flyers?
They are under the wire,
Serotek will be fine,
And, we do need to take the byte out of crime,
Your help we do need,
Go reed,
Get more information, at Blind access journal and the Desert Skies,
They show the size of this issue, so, go to their site,
Both shine the light,
They forward a link, it, they did save,
After reading the Lawsuit, rant and Rave,
Let's do what we can, what do you say?
Let the smaller fish play.

Freedom Scientific V. Serotek Case Not Just About a Trademark

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We have received a comment from a reader stating essentially that we shouldn’t make a big deal about this case, as Freedom Scientific is only asking that Serotek stop using the word FreedomBox as a product name.  Unfortunately, this assertion just does not match with the facts of the complaint as spelled out in paragraphs 17, 22 and 27.
 
Ceasing use of “FreedomBox” is just one aspect of this lawsuit.  Freedom Scientific is also suing for damages.  That’s right, my friends.  They’re suing Serotek for money!  Let’s review the relevant paragraphs:
 
17. The Defendant threatens to continue to do the actions complained of herein, and unless restrained and enjoined, will continue to do so, all to the Plaintiffs
irreparable damage. It would be difficult to ascertain the amount of compensation which could afford the Plaintiff adequate relief for such continuing
acts, and a multiplicity of judicial proceedings would be required. The Plaintiffs remedy at law is not adequate to compensate it for the injuries threatened.
WHEREFORE the Plaintiff prays:
 
(a) That this Court grant a permanent injunction pursuant to the powers granted it under 15 U.S.C. Section 1116, enjoining and restraining the Defendant
and its agents, servants, and employees from directly or indirectly using the name “Freedom Box” or any other mark, word, or name similar to the Plaintiffs
mark which is likely to cause confusion, mistake, or to deceive;
 
(b) That this Court, pursuant to the powers granted it under 15 U.S.C. Section 1118, order that all labels, signs, prints, packages, wrappers, receptacles,
and advertisements and other materials in the possession of the Defendant bearing the mark “Freedom Box” and all plates, molds, matrices, and other means
of making the same, shall be delivered up and destroyed;
 
(c) That this Court award the Plaintiff treble the amount of actual damages suffered by the Plaintiff;
 
(d) That the costs of this action be awarded to the Plaintiff;
 
(e) That this is an exceptional case and that the Plaintiff be awarded its reasonable attorneys’ fees; and
 
(f) That this Court grant such other and further relief as it shall deem just.
 
22. The infringing acts of Defendant, as heretofore alleged, have been without the consent of Plaintiff. 
 
WHEREFORE the Plaintiff prays:
 
(a) That this Court grant an injunction enjoining and restraining the Defendant and its agents, servants, and employees from directly or indirectly using
the name “Freedom Box” or any other mark, word, or name similar to the Plaintiffs mark which is likely to cause confusion, mistake, or to deceive;
 
(b) That this Court order that all labels, signs, prints, packages, wrappers, receptacles, and advertisements and other materials in the possession of the
Defendant bearing the mark “Freedom Box” and all plates, molds, matrices, and other means of making the same, shall be delivered up and destroyed;
 
(c) That the costs of this action be awarded to the Plaintiff;
 
(d) That Plaintiff be awarded its reasonable attorneys’ fees; and
 
(e) That this Court grant such other and further relief as it shall deem just.
 
27. The Defendant threatens to continue to do the actions complained of herein, and unless restrained and enjoined, will continue to do so, all to the Plaintiffs
irreparable damage. It would be difficult to ascertain the amount of compensation which could afford the Plaintiff adequate relief for such continuing
acts, and a multiplicity of judicial proceedings would be required. The Plaintiffs remedy at law is not adequate to compensate it for the injuries threatened.
 
WHEREFORE the Plaintiff prays:
 
(a) That this Court grant an injunction enjoining and restraining the Defendant and its agents, servants, and employees from (1) directly or indirectly
using the word “Freedom Box” or any other mark, word, or name similar to the Plaintiffs mark which is likely to cause confusion and (2) continuing any
and all acts of unfair competition as herein alleged;
 
(b) That the Defendant be required to account to the Plaintiff for any and all profits derived by the Defendant from the sale of its goods and for all damages
sustained by the Plaintiff by reason of said acts of unfair competition complained of herein;
 
(c) That this Court award punitive and exemplary damages against the Defendant and in favor of the Plaintiff by reason of the Defendant’s fraud and palming
off;
 
(d) That the costs of this action be awarded to the Plaintiff; and
 
(e) That this Court grant such other and further relief as it shall deem just.
There are some rather disturbing elements of this complaint.  First, Freedom Scientific is asking for unspecified damages resulting from the supposed trademark infringement.  In this context, the word “treble” is defined as “a claim for treble (or triple) damages”!  That’s right, my friends!  Freedom Scientific wants the court to determine the amount of damages they suffered, then triple that figure!  Read this again; that’s triple!  Second, Freedom Scientific claims that this case is “exceptional” enough to also justify forcing Serotek to pay their legal fees!  Third, Freedom Scientific wants to put Serotek through all the costs involved with totally remarketing and renaming their “FreedomBox” product when the trademark infringement claim seems rather dubious at best.
 
So, given these and probably many other factors I may have overlooked, should we be concerned about this case as a blind community?  You bet!  We should always be very worried when the largest player in the blindness technology market chooses to sue its competition out of business rather than to compete fairly, create the products we need to insure continued access to technology, innovate and properly support their existing product lines!

Mike, Matt and all the hard working folks at Serotek have been innovating, going boldly where no other assistive technology company has gone before.  Their Remote Incident Manager product promises to absolutely revolutionize current and new employment opportunities for blind people all over the world, and System Access is getting better and better all the time!  If this lawsuit puts them out of business, this technology could be lost and not rediscovered for a very long time.  In the First Century A.D., everyone forgot that the Earth is round with the loss of scientific curiosity and discovery that resulted from the destruction of the Roman Empire and the insuing Dark Ages.  Do we really want to allow Freedom Scientific to do the same thing to the blindness assistive technology industry and to us as a community now?

HomerKit 2.0 for JAWS users and script developers

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Executable installer
http://www.EmpowermentZone.com/kitsetup.exe

Zip archive
http://www.EmpowermentZone.com/kitsetup.zip

HomerKit 2.0
Released May 18, 2007

HomerKit is (1) a set of tools to help build JAWS scripts and (2) the
application of those tools in script sets for several programs. The
unifying intent of these script sets is a powerful, consistent keyboard
interface for tasks related to editing, navigating, and managing
documents. Currently, programs with this scripted interface are JAWS
Script Manager, NoteTab, WordPad, Notepad, Internet
Explorer, Microsoft Outlook, and Outlook Express.

The word "Homer" reflects multiple associations: an odyssey by a blind
person, a home row-oriented keyboard interface, and a home base for
various tasks. If you regularly use any of the programs mentioned, then
the standardization and enhancements of the script sets provided may be of
benefit. Any parts of the Homer script library or related tools may also
be used in developing your own script sets. JAWS versions 6.2 and above
are supported.

There is a symbiotic relationship between the Homer tools and script sets:
the tools have been developed to create the script enabled features, and
the script sets serve as real world examples of the tools in use. Since
HomerKit is a free, open source project, JAWS script developers are
encouraged to contribute improvements that benefit the blind community.

This 2.0 version of HomerKit incorporates many fixes and enhancements
since the original release. The Homer editor guide explains the
convenient, powerful interface that is consistently available in a text
editor, word processor, web browser, and email program. Each application
also includes special features enabled by particular scripts for that
context. Hot key summaries are readily available, as is an alternate menu
by which you can pick a script to execute.

Comments from various testers, and ideas from the JAWS scripting list of
BlindProgramming.com, have aided the development of Homer. I hope it
benefits many users.

Jamal

Freedom Scientific Suing Serotek, Claim Trademark Infringement

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We have just learned that Freedom Scientific filed suit against Serotek on May 14 claiming trademark infringement for use of the term “FreedomBox”. This development raises several potentially interesting, if speculative, questions:

  • FreedomBox has existed as a product of Serotek Corporation for seven years. Why is Freedom Scientific making this move after all that time has passed?

  • This lawsuit was filed one day before the Wafra acquisition was made public. Is there any relationship between the two events?

  • Serotek’s products are evolving in some rather innovative ways, covering some of the same territory as products manufactured by Freedom Scientific. Now that Serotek’s recognition and standing is rapidly increasing within the assistive technology industry and the blind community, does this lawsuit represent an anti-competitive move on Freedom Scientific’s part to attempt to delete a player from the field?

  • The name “FreedomBox” and the name “Freedom Scientific” have only the word “freedom” in common. There are many other company’s with names including the word “freedom” including Freedom Communications, Inc. and Freedom Technologies Corporation. Given these and probably many other facts, how does Freedom Scientific have a case? The movie Jaws was made in 1975, long before either Henter-Joyce or Freedom Scientific existed. Should Steven Spielberg sue Freedom Scientific for trademark infringement over the name “Jaws”?

  • Why has Freedom Scientific demanded a jury instead of simply allowing a judge to handle this matter expeditiously?

We at the Blind Access Journal are deeply concerned about the possible ramifications of this development, even if Freedom Scientific does not win their case. We are continuing to research this story with our sources in the assistive technology and legal fields and will report frequently as new details become known. Please feel free to post a comment or e-mail us at any time about this or any other item.

Visual Verification: CAPTCHA Prevents Blind People from Signing Up at CGISpy.com

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I wrote the following note to Mike with CGISpy.com after learning that they are now using a visual only CAPTCHA (visual verification) that prevents blind people from signing up for their services.

Dear Mike,
 
I am a blind user who is trying to create an account on CGISpy.com.  Unfortunately, your visual only CAPTCHA prevents me from completing the process.  Please consider removing the CAPTCHA, replacing the CAPTCHA with another form of protection such as e-mail confirmation or implementing an audio CAPTCHA that will play back the characters so that blind people may listen to the code to be entered.
 
I anticipate your prompt response on this important issue that currently locks out blind people simply on the basis that they are unable to see.
 
Best regards,
 
Darrell Shandrow
Accessibility Evangelist

Serotek Announces Remote Incident Manager (RIM) Pricing

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This is fantastic news! Serotek’s CEO, Mike Calvo, has just announced the pricing for Remote Incident Manager. This technology promises to totally revolutionize the business, employment and educational opportunities for any blind person requiring anytime, anywhere mobile and remote access to computers running modern Windows operating systems. Pricing for Remote Incident Manager will be $99 per month. This requires a Key to Freedom equipped with System Access Mobile at a price of $499 and an annual $60 update plan. The pricing plan, scheduled for official public release on May 18, easily competes with similar offerings in the mainstream market and will place this technology into the hands of assistive technology specialists, consultants, help desk technicians and others who require the ability to remotely administer computers owned by sighted people who do not already have assistive technology installed. For answers to your questions, or to place an order, please contact Serotek. Let’s all get behind Serotek as a blind community and support this critical technology.

Accessible Currency for All

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Karen presents all of us with a KDD (Karen's Daily Dose) poem asking you
all to visit http://money4all.info and sign the Accessible Currency
petition if you have not yet done so.

If you want to independently Identify cash,
Please, do dash,
On over, to ACB Radio,
Money4all.info, is the site to go,
Sign your name,
if you do, life, will not be the same,
So make the move,
The quality of life for all the blind will improve.
despite what you may have been told,
You will not have to fold,
Your bills in different ways for easy identification,
Go listen to the promo on the ACB station.

The Accessible Currency issue affects all, no matter what race or
ethnicity,
Can significantly change the world,for all who can not see,
You and me.
No matter, young ,old or what your Heritage,
Don't burn the bridge.
Don't allow there to be a barrier, we don't need a wall,
We need accessible currency for all.
Even if your retired, a student or employed,
This issue you can not avoid
Whether you march with a consumer organization,or walk alone,
Let your voice be heard, your opinion be known.
Give us all a hand,
Take a stand,
If we have accessible money,, more independence, for us, understand?
Upon others, we will not have to depend,
Not a family member, co-worker or friend.
Nor the Clerk in your favorite neighborhood shop,
The stranger on the street,or the city cop.
To identify the denominations, wouldn't you like to read them
yourself?
Does notmatter,if you have wealth.
Live in poverty, or are a cashier in a BEP program,
Employed for SSA or work for Uncle Sam,.
No matter if you are employed at a large corporation and the CEO,
If you, run the show.
Or have your own small business,
Wouldn't you want access?
Why spend the resources on a talking money identifier??
Complete access, don't you desire?
Why ask for sighted assistance,if it,you do not need?
With accessible currency, you can read.

The group Dyer Straights sung a song titled Money for nothing,
So, drive on to the information highway,
And sign the online petition today.
And ACB, Accessible Money we would like to bring,
So, don't wait, do not stall,
Go online and help gain access to currency for all.