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Subject: Re: Clones and moral behavior

Author: Vincent Diepeveen

Date: 10:35:21 08/23/05

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On August 23, 2005 at 03:59:33, Uri Blass wrote:

>On August 23, 2005 at 03:27:31, David Mitchell wrote:
>
>>On August 23, 2005 at 00:44:33, Cesar Contreras wrote:
>>
>>>"Clone" it's just a moral word. It seams to be intended to distinct "original"
>>>from "not original" chess engines. Useless today in my opinion. Maybe a diferent
>>>word can serve that good purpose for some more time.
>>>
>>>The fact it's that this diference don't exist anymore, most programs are pretty
>>>unoriginal altought some have more original touches than others.
>>>
>>>So originality came in the form of some "touches of originality".
>>>
>>>I see some similarities with "moralily" or "good behavior":
>>>
>>>* Nobody really know what does "clone" means
>>>* Every chess programmer is afraid being named a "cloner"
>>>* If you defend a cloner be ready to be named a "cloner"
>>>* If you discover a cloner, be ready to be named "X the just"
>>>* Every programmer it's tempted to "clone"
>>>* Everybody it's ready to punish the "clonner"
>>>* Every new strong engine on town must "hide something"
>>>* "Clone" meaned one thing 2 years ago, now means something diferent, it's like
>>>a fashion thing.
>>>* Things that some years ago meaned "to clone", now are bean threated with more
>>>open mind.
>>>* Everybody agree clonning it's bad (except some freaks out there).
>>>
>>>
>>>My conclusion.
>>>    * Typical nonsense human behavior.
>>>    * Legality must be well defined, it's just wrong to punish someone for
>>>something that undefinied.
>>>
>>>PD. I hope this is not copyrigthed.
>>
>>A "clone" is obviously just a coined word to mean "a copy or non-original" work.
>>To actually research all about computer chess, you obviously would want to
>>thoroughly inspect every strong (and some weak, as well), source code listing.
>>
>>But taking Fruit and "translating" it (and apparently Uri doesn't know that
>>programs have been written that already do that, to varying degrees of success,
>>so it's no big deal), into another language, and making an "alternate"
>>evaluation, is much MORE than "fair use", by any legal term.
>>
>>Presenting such a program as your own work, is just plagerism, and copyright
>>infringement. If Uri says it's "Movei based on Fruit", or "Movei, an enhanced
>>Fruit chess program", then he might be OK, imo. But he wouldn't be eligible to
>>compete in "no clones allowed" tournaments.
>>
>>Common sense tells us that just because lots of cars have 4 wheels and V-8
>>engines, that doesn't mean they're all "clones". (OK, some are pretty close, but
>>that's beside the point, here)! But clearly, taking a Tom Clancy novel and
>>adding your own "alternate ending", doesn't let you pass your "new book", off as
>>your own book. No way.
>>
>>Uri seems to have an unlimited number of ways to rationalize his desire to
>>produce a Fruit clone, but his arguments in favor of it, are just laundry out
>>blowing in the breeze. There's not a whiff of sense to any of them.
>>
>>No matter WHAT he adds or subtracts from Fruit, his new program, will include
>>code largely derived from, and based on, Fruit. As long as he knows that, and
>>presents it as such (like Toga's author does), I have no problem with it - in
>>fact I think it's a good thing. We might all learn what happens to Fruit with a
>>little tinkering Movei-style. Fine!
>>
>>But please, don't call it an original program, because clearly it's not - it's a
>>"clone".
>
>I can say the following about the latest version of movei.
>
>1)I learned Fruit king attack and king shelter and I think that I understood it.
>2)I added a function to calculate almost the same evaluation as fruit with small
>differences(no copy and paste because I have a different data structure).
>3)I tested the version with fruit's evaluation and I found it to be probably
>weaker than original Movei because it tends to play some unsound
>sacrifices(Fruit does not play it probably because of other terms that I still
>did not learn).
>4)I decided to divide fruit's evaluation by 2 and again it seems that the new
>version is weaker.
>5)I decided to add movei original king safety evaluation to half of something
>that is close to fruit's king safety evaluation and it seems that the result is
>that the thing plays better(not sure because I do not have enough games).
>
>I am not sure if I need to delete all of what I did and to accept the fact that
>my evaluation will always not have some knowledge that fruit has in order to be
>allowed to play in tournaments.
>
>I discussed about the extreme case of copying all Fruit's evaluation because I
>am afraid that if I continue to do it with other parts of fruit I may be
>considered to be a cloner of fruit and not allowed to participate with movei in
>tournaments.
>
>Uri

Uri,

I didn't read entire thread, but do i understand it correctly that you want
to clone Fruit and IQ lobotomize it?

If so, why?

Vincent



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