Author: Michael Williams
Date: 22:21:05 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. > >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. You should be able to copyright chess moves in a specific context just as you should be able to copyright musical notes in a specific arrangement, sequence and context. Similar arguments exist for code. The difficulty in defending a position does not affect the justifiability of defending a position.
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