Forvo
Type of site
Linguistics
OwnerForvo Media SL
URLforvo.com
CommercialYes[1]
RegistrationOptional, but required to download MP3s and to add pronunciations
LaunchedJanuary 2008
Content license
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0
License was Creative Commons from January 2008 until August 2019. See note below.

Forvo.com (/ˈfɔːrvoʊ/ FOR-voh) is a website that allows access to, and playback of, pronunciation sound clips in many different languages in an attempt to facilitate the learning of languages. Forvo.com was first envisioned in 2007 by co-founder Israel Rondón,[2] and came to fruition in 2008. Forvo.com is owned by Forvo Media SL, based in San Sebastián, Spain. Forvo's 'About'-page states Forvo to be the largest pronunciation guide website on the Internet.[3] It has been listed in the 50 best websites of 2013 by Time.[4]

All sound clips on Forvo.com are created by its users, who also have the power to vote on each clip, positively or negatively, in an effort to ensure that the highest quality sound clips have priority in the site's listings. The pronunciations are also reviewed and edited by a volunteer team of editors.[5]

Forvo has an API[6] to share its pronunciation with other websites. The API service is paid ($2/year for non-commercial use).[7]

Recommendations for adding words

Forvo just encourages adding simple words but there are some exceptions that can be clearly found in their recommendations and policy.[8]

Forvo License and User's Rights

Since the beginning of Forvo in 2008 the Company adopted a License called "Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 3.0". By the end of 2019 the Company removed the "Creative Commons" Terms and Conditions from their website.[9] It was replaced with an "ad hoc" License that severely restricts user's rights to copy, modify and redistribute the audio files.[10]

Since 2008 until 2019 Forvo requested volunteers to record their voices and approximately 5 million audios were recorded under the "Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 3.0".[11] Afterwards, Forvo suddenly changed the License to make all recordings their exclusive property.[12] Many users have complained of restrictions to download audio.[13][14] Forvo tried to revoke the rights of users and impede them from downloading their own voices.

More than 5 million audios were recorded under a Creative Commons License that grants irrevocable rights to users to obtain a copy, modify and redistribute the data.[15] However, Forvo violated the Creative Commons License to restrict the freedom of users. In contrast, the Free and Open Source Alternative Lingua Libre does allow users to copy, modify and share their audios.[16]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Forvo's About page says "Headed by Félix Vela ... I love working at a startup". That implies Forvo is a startup commercial company. Currently they appear to be making money off the iPhone app and website advertising. The site nowhere says it's non-profit, just that the content is CC-licensed.
  2. ↑ "Bombilla = Light bulb". 12 November 2010.
  3. ↑ "About Forvo". Retrieved 2010-09-26.
  4. ↑ "Time Best Websites of 2013". 2013-05-06. Archived from the original on 2013-06-02. Retrieved 2013-05-22.
  5. ↑ "pronunciation guide. Recent collaborators". Forvo. Retrieved 2012-03-13.
  6. ↑ "Forvo Pronunciation API, let's show the world how to pronounce!". Api.forvo.com. Retrieved 2012-03-13.
  7. ↑ "Forvo.com API Pricing". Forvo.com.
  8. ↑ "Forvo rules".
  9. ↑ "2015 Forvo License". Archived from the original on 2015-09-05.
  10. ↑ "License". Forvo. Retrieved 2021-11-20.
  11. ↑ "2015 Forvo License". Archived from the original on 2015-09-05.
  12. ↑ Team, Forvo. "Forvo, the pronunciation guide, license of use". Forvo.com. Retrieved 2021-11-20.
  13. ↑ "A Free and Open Source alternative to Forvo.com (Pronunciation) - A language learners' forum". forum.language-learners.org. Retrieved 2021-11-20.
  14. ↑ "data request - Where to download the Forvo database?". Open Data Stack Exchange. Retrieved 2021-11-21.
  15. ↑ "Creative Commons — Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported — CC BY-NC-SA 3.0". creativecommons.org. Retrieved 2021-11-21.
  16. ↑ "Lingua Libre". lingualibre.org. Retrieved 2021-11-21.
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