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Subject: Re: Unauthorized use of Rebel books

Author: Russell Reagan

Date: 21:28:30 04/30/02

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On May 01, 2002 at 00:22:06, Miguel A. Ballicora wrote:

>An computer opening book (handmade) is actually analysis in binary format. I
>believe that is quite far from being "just" a collection of moves.
>
>Regards,
>Miguel

Maybe you're right, but maybe not. I seriously doubt that anything in any
opening book anywhere is 100% original. If there is nothing original in the
opening book, then it's questionable whether it's capable of being copyrighted.

If a person wrote original analysis, they could copyright it. If a second person
wrote identical analysis, they can't claim that as their own. In the case of
opening books I think that anyone today who creates an opening book is not
creating anything original. They are borrowing from decades or more of knowledge
that is publicly well known.

Even if you can convince everyone that the opening book is analysis in binary
form, you'll have an additional obstacle of convincing them that anything in the
opening book is original. In chess, there isn't much new in the openings. That
is not to say that there is nothing left to discover in the opening, but until
someone shows that they have found something original, it's hard to make the
argument that it should be copyrighted. If someone finds an incredible
innovation in 1. h3 or something, that might be original, but anything that
starts with 1. e4, 1. d4, 1. c4, 1. Nf3, etc. etc. etc. is probably not
original.

Russell



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