The year is ending but we continue working hard and bringing new languages to Forvo. This time thanks to OziX for the Swedish translation, and Shady_arc and Eugeniavlasova for the Russian translation. We are working on more languages to be released soon: Dutch, German, Romanian and Chinese are on their way.

Do you think Forvo is useful? We hope so :) But here is a nice figure that confims that idea. Do you know how many time have been listened to the pronunciations on Forvo? Well, more than 25 million times. To be exact: 25.307.322.

Good news: We are very happy to announce the release of Forvo in Portuguese, Italian and French!

As promised by the end of the year we would have more languages available and here it is the first one. The delay until the very end of the year was not intentional anyway. ;)

We have to thank to the editors (Heracleum, spl0uf, emanuelJoab and Diônifer Alan) who have translated Forvo into these languages and also the rest of them who are making a great work in other languages too. Expect new languages in the next weeks, days, or even hours.

And remember, if you want to help to translate Forvo to more languages you just have to ask for it. We´ll set up a translator account for you in minutes.

Forvo supports the following manifesto:

A group of journalists, bloggers, professionals and creators want to express their firm opposition to the inclusion in a Draft Law of some changes to Spanish laws restricting the freedoms of expression, information and access to culture on the Internet. They also declare that:

1. Copyright should not be placed above citizens’ fundamental rights to privacy, security, presumption of innocence, effective judicial protection and freedom of expression.

2. Suspension of fundamental rights is and must remain an exclusive competence of judges. This blueprint, contrary to the provisions of Article 20.5 of the Spanish Constitution, places in the hands of the executive the power to keep Spanish citizens from accessing certain websites.

3. The proposed laws would create legal uncertainty across Spanish IT companies, damaging one of the few areas of development and future of our economy, hindering the creation of startups, introducing barriers to competition and slowing down its international projection.

4. The proposed laws threaten creativity and hinder cultural development. The Internet and new technologies have democratized the creation and publication of all types of content, which no longer depends on an old small industry but on multiple and different sources.

5. Authors, like all workers, are entitled to live out of their creative ideas, business models and activities linked to their creations. Trying to hold an obsolete industry with legislative changes is neither fair nor realistic. If their business model was based on controlling copies of any creation and this is not possible any more on the Internet, they should look for a new business model.

6. We believe that cultural industries need modern, effective, credible and affordable alternatives to survive. They also need to adapt to new social practices.

7. The Internet should be free and not have any interference from groups that seek to perpetuate obsolete business models and stop the free flow of human knowledge.

8. We ask the Government to guarantee net neutrality in Spain, as it will act as a framework in which a sustainable economy may develop.

9. We propose a real reform of intellectual property rights in order to ensure a society of knowledge, promote the public domain and limit abuses from copyright organizations.

10. In a democracy, laws and their amendments should only be adopted after a timely public debate and consultation with all involved parties. Legislative changes affecting fundamental rights can only be made in a Constitutional law.

More info: Wiki