Author: Dann Corbit
Date: 17:07:27 02/16/99
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On February 16, 1999 at 19:36:13, Fernando Villegas wrote: >Dear dan: >theris is ajoke in my country about an stubborns owner of a grosery that chewed >a piece of soap and when a guy told so to him, he said: "yes, its has the >flavour of soap, makes bubbles as sopa, smell like sopa, but is is cheese..." >Now about a program based in Crafty we cxabn do the same joke: it plays better >than Crafty, it wins all the test to Crafty, makes differents assestment of >positions than Crafty, has his own style opposite to that of Crafty and >venvertheless is still crafty.. >Well, I think we should think something more in what makes the difference in the >definitions of things. As I learned in ths school in my philosophy classes, what >makes the better definition is not that based in shape, etc, but in function. Or >if you want, perfomace. What is a table? Just a piece of wood with 4 legs or >maybe we could do a better job saying a piece of stell with thhree legs? Or >just saying a piece of furniture designed to put things above his surface? >Maybe Bionic or Voyager have 99% of components from Crafty, but if the behaviour >is not like Crafty, then is not Crafty. A chess program is for playing chess and >so matters of style and strenght are the important ones, no how was done, how >many new or olds pieces has, etc. >Besides, Is not the way science and technology grows? First trains wagons seemed >conventional horses pulled wagons. Same shape, etc. Relativity cannot be >understood without Nweton phisics, Einstein made his job on the ground of >previous jobs. I don not imagine Nweton saying "Hey, you have stolen 98% of my >ideas, you thief...!" Or just 23% if you want. In other words, this is a >collective endeavour even if individual wheels into it feel it is not so and try >to get all the credit or using general knowledege just for themselves without >interest in share his own ideas, but then even so they will be used by someone >else. Nobody can hide nothing for ever and be taken away the general trend of >huma thinking and movement. Julio Verne kind of scientific monsters are not >posible. You can delay, nothing else. Bob chose the contrary, to push, and that >is his great achievement. Well, thank goodness you said something I can disagree with again! ;-) Illustration, which I am waiting for you to disagree with: A Fernando article is just an article. If I change a word or two, or maybe a whole paragraph, now I can claim that I wrote it. I can win a Pulitzer prize with it and take home the money and sing great songs of praise to myself. What is wrong with this picture? Hmmm. It's not the ideas in Fernando's article. Ideas belong to everyone (cough -- ignoring conceptual patents). If Fernando writes a beautiful illustration about how a chess program makes him think of a certain symphony or a beautiful painting that does not preclude me from doing something very similar. However, if I copy that work, make some minor cosmetic changes, and claim it is mine -- I think I have done something wrong. To read Dr. Hyatt's program is not wrong. To see how he does rotated bitboards and go write some for your program is not wrong. To read compressed tablebase files using the same techniques is not wrong. But to take that program, add a few bells and whistles, and write "Dann Corbit's New Chess Program" on it would be wrong. Now, if something is donated to the public domain (requires a notice) then you can do exactly as I specified above. You can even copyright your changes. But to take copyright material and stamp your name on it is wrong. I am puzzled that you, as a writer, do not understand intellectual property. I do suspect strongly that laws in this matter may vary from place to place. Perhaps some of the confusion arises from that aspect. Two cent summary: 1. Ideas are free (unless patented) 2. Copyrighted material is not free. If you plan to use it, you must abide by all stated terms and conditions. A penny a point, I guess.
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