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Subject: Re: Unauthorized use of Rebel books

Author: Slater Wold

Date: 13:01:33 04/30/02

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On April 30, 2002 at 14:42:50, Jeroen Noomen wrote:

>During the last 6 - 12 months I have noticed a trend that there are very clear
>indications that non-commercial programmers of chess programs make use of (parts
>of) commercially available books. As I was in Maastricht during the WMCCC in
>2001, lots of speculations and complaints were heard about this topic.  From
>several sources I know that also the Rebel books have been ‘hacked’ by people (I
>will not mention their names, I am sure they know themselves whom I am talking
>about). As the Rebel books are my lifework I want to put a very clear statement
>in this forum.
>
>The Rebel books have been developped by me during a period of almost 14 years.
>Not only is it handmade, it also contains lots of stuff you will not find in
>other books. In the past it has happenend a few times that chess programs were
>caught as not being made by the programmer himself. Examples are Quick Step back
>in 1989, Greif, the several Crafty clones. As we can see from todays rules by
>the ICCA, such programs are not tolerated anymore. And in my view this is fully
>correct.
>
>Jeroen Noomen
>Bookauthor for Rebel and Chess Tiger

I can understand your frustration.  You've worked just as hard as Ed or
Christophe on Rebel/Tiger.  No doubt your books add a considerable amount of Elo
to these programs, and I am sure Ed and Christophe are very appreciative of
that.

However, I must warn you that laying claim to a series of chess opening moves is
not going to be easy to defend.  You cannot copyright moves in chess, as you
cannot copyright dance moves.  While you can copyright a mvs book, you are
actually only copyrighting the format.  Again, you cannot copyright chess moves.

I think anyone found 'hacking' a chess program, or its book, should face a
severe punishment. Anyone claiming something is their, when in fact it is not,
should be punished.

I am not defending these people, I am simply stating the fact that it would be
easier to encrypt the books, than to go after those stealing it.



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