Author: Slater Wold
Date: 20:45:28 04/30/02
Go up one level in this thread
On April 30, 2002 at 17:24:20, Vine Smith wrote: >On April 30, 2002 at 16:16:16, Dann Corbit wrote: > >>On April 30, 2002 at 16:01:33, Slater Wold wrote: >>>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. >> >>While you cannot copyright chess moves, you can copyright a particular >>collection as a whole. (For example, a book of analysis about Bobby Fischer's >>chess games can be copyrighted). >> >>I'm not a lawyer, so I don't know what the repercussions are for an opening >>book. But it is pretty clear that you should not simply use someone's work and >>claim that it is yours. > >A similar problem exists in the field of cartography, where the information >conveyed by a map is public domain, but its assemblage and presentation is not. >One approach that has been used is to include trivial, but fictitious geographic >elements in the map, such as small towns or lakes that don't actually exist -- >if your map is substantially swiped, the inclusion of these fictitious elements >in the copy is proof positive of plagiarism. Perhaps authors of chess program >books should do the same. In each significant opening, a "false" line full of >outrageously bad moves could be included, and the program would be "hard coded" >not to use them (as opposed to marking them in some way in the book itself, >which would be too obvious). Finding these lines in another book would >constitute quick and conclusive proof of intellectual theft; whether this could >be used for legal purposes is not clear to me, but certainly the offender could >be dealt with by the ICCA and other organizations according to their rules. Good idea. However, there are people who setup 20 computers to play through their books for weeks at a time. This would probably get rid of 99% of those bad lines.
This page took 0 seconds to execute
Last modified: Thu, 15 Apr 21 08:11:13 -0700
Current Computer Chess Club Forums at Talkchess. This site by Sean Mintz.