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Subject: Re: Unauthorized use of Rebel books

Author: Jeroen Noomen

Date: 00:24:25 05/01/02

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On April 30, 2002 at 23:39:45, Russell Reagan wrote:


From this posting I can see that you have no idea what work is involved into
making a really good openingbook. Do you really assume it is that easy? Just
take a couple of games, melt them together and eureka, we have a good book?

Just attend to my home one time, and I will show you what work and knowledge
REALLY is necessary.



>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



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