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Facts:

  1. Vosk iOS libraries are available via request. Your request will be rejected for non-commercial projects: source 1 and source 2 + my communication experience with Vosk creator.
  2. I offered Vosk creator a PR from my side with .sh script which builds iOS libraries, but was warned by him that it wouldn’t be approved.

Questions:

  1. Could someone explain the restrictive policies regarding iOS support? It seems the Vosk team behaves in two opposite manners simultaneously: 'We don't care about money at all, you can't make donations since there are no channels, and all platforms and models are free.' However, if you're interested in iOS, they will only speak with you if you are an enterprise.
  2. What stops me from making a fork from Vosk repo and invest into this fork? As far as I understand - nothing, since it's an open source project. If there are any legal or iOS-specific obstacles, I would really appreciate any comments on that.

Sumup:

In no way I want to create some enterprise solution built on Vosk. I think it's been done already several times. I really appreciate the work Vosk team have put into this project. Still sure it's mostly a one-man effort. The point is: I see Vosk as a future worldwide solution for free on-device speech recognition when you don't need to pay huge monthly fee to online solutions for sending them your data. Plot twist, they use your data to improve their models (only Google offers a discount for this) and there’s a high chance they resell it because what stops them?

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  1. We can't tell you why Vosk do as they do. They distribute much of their code under an Apache licence, which isn't a copyleft licence, so they are completely entitled to take that position. Someone who chooses to distribute code for their Android project under free terms has no obligation to write an iOS version, nor if they choose to do so are they obliged to distribute it under similar terms (assuming that no third-party copyleft code is involved in its production).

  2. The code that's currently available through github, you may (apparently) download under the Apache licence. You may therefore build a derivative work on that code, including (should you so choose) porting it to iOS, and use and distribute that derivative work provided you honour the requirements of the Apache2 licence when you do.

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