Author: Peter McKenzie
Date: 13:31:01 04/30/02
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On April 30, 2002 at 16:01:33, Slater Wold wrote: >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. This isn't a copyright issue, its not even a legal issue in the traditional sense. It is about the rules for a particular competition, namely the ICCA World Computer Chess Championship. If the rules say that you can't use someone elses book in the tournament (and its not even clear that they do say this), then you can't use someone elses book regardless of what copyright says. Of course ICCA can't send you to jail if you break their rules :-) But they can chuck you out of their tournament. > >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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