Author: allan johnson
Date: 21:01:42 04/30/02
Go up one level in this thread
On April 30, 2002 at 23:39:45, Russell Reagan wrote: >Chess opening moves, for the most part, are not anywhere close to being >"intellectual property", and the sharing of them is thus not a problem for the >large portion of opening moves. If there are some original lines that you worked >out that no one else in the history of chess publication has published that are >present within your opening books, then congratulations, you have a small part >of an opening book that you may claim intellectual property...maybe. > >Even if you did come up with something like this entirely on your own that no >one else had ever come up with before, I still think it's quite unclear whether >it's intellectual property. If that were the case chess would become illegal to >play within seconds. You would play 1. e4 and...OOPS! Someone has already played >that and so it's not allowed for you to play. > >Personally I think this is very silly. It's a game. If you created your opening >books for financial gain, then you shouldn't get all up in arms when people >start getting their hands on it. If you created them for people to use, then you >shouldn't get all bent out of shape either. If you don't derive enough joy from >doing it to the point where you are going to get all upset about people >"stealing" what is mostly well known data, then perhaps you didn't do it for the >right reasons to begin with. No organization making a rule is going to stop >anyone from using a database of opening chess moves. > >I think this would be like someone creating a big list of prime numbers and >selling them and getting upset when someone else gives them away for free. Sure, >you put in the original work to create it, but I hardly think chess moves are in >any way intellectual property. If that were the case, no one would be allowed to >learn from others chess games. You wouldn't be able to see Kasparov's latest >game and see his new line and use it without his permission, which is of course, >absurd. > >Russell Russell I found your response logical and persuasive.When I first read Jeroen's message I sympathised with him a great deal but after reading your rejoinder I've been convinced that he really shouldn't expect to own chess openings. Al
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