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Subject: Re: I doubt that List is a crafty clone

Author: Ulrich Tuerke

Date: 04:47:22 12/04/03

Go up one level in this thread


On December 04, 2003 at 05:00:38, Mridul Muralidharan wrote:

>On December 03, 2003 at 11:52:01, Robert Hyatt wrote:
>
>>On December 03, 2003 at 04:59:59, Uri Blass wrote:
>>
>>>On December 03, 2003 at 04:10:49, Vincent Diepeveen wrote:
>>>
>>>>On December 03, 2003 at 03:23:44, Uri Blass wrote:
>>>>
>>>>You and a lot of people at CCC are missing the point.
>>>>
>>>>If we must proof something, we can be busy 30 years without result.
>>>>
>>>>Disproving for an author in general takes no more than 2 minutes.
>>>>
>>>>If such author refuses to cooperate, saying loudly he distrusts everyone on the
>>>>planet especially professor Jaap v/d Herik (the only european professor with 2
>>>>professor titles and leading a big department; imagine what happens to
>>>>netherlands if he is not trustable) and also refusing to proof 2 weeks after the
>>>>event Dr Ernst A Heinz will come to him and he can show it at his laptop to Dr
>>>>Ernst A Heinz, then the ICGA can take only 1 action and the author should be
>>>>banned forever.
>>>>
>>>>The only possible thing with regards to source code is proving you are original.
>>>>This is a 2 minute procedure in some cases.
>>>>
>>>>Proof that it is a crafty clone is not needed anyhow, he has to show he is an
>>>>original engine and nothing more.
>>>>
>>>>Otherwise we get computer-go world scenes here where the winner of the world
>>>>championships was a reversed engineered commercial program, which has lead to
>>>>big courtcases and accusations world wide, and i am very sure that every serious
>>>>programmer wants to avoid that.
>>>>
>>>>So the ICGA using the principle that programmers must proof they have an
>>>>original engine is a very correct way to do things.
>>>>
>>>>If they would NOT do it, just imagine the number of clones. You can show up with
>>>>shredder for example, put R to 2 and load it in Arena or wherever. What time do
>>>>you guess it will take to proof that it is shredder when it just plays 1 move
>>>>different, say Be2 instead of O-O?
>>>>
>>>>Furhter we change a few tables inside that executable of shredder so it won't be
>>>>even closely playing everywhere the same move to it, i hope you realize how easy
>>>>that is. This is a 2 minute thing for a good hacker.
>>>>
>>>>So now i hope you shut up about proving it is crafty.
>>>>
>>>>The guy was given weeks of time to proof he had an original engine. He failed to
>>>>do so, so it is banned till 2006 from ICGA, as simple as that.
>>>>
>>>>That he was extremely rude towards the ICGA and professor Jaap v/d Herik
>>>>especially, is not even relevant for that.
>>>>
>>>>Also distrusting his own openingsbook creator with his source code, it's
>>>>incredible.
>>>>
>>>>Even Hyatt has had my source code on his machine, many have.
>>>>
>>>>At the national supercomputer there is at least 30 persons with root access and
>>>>at SGI there is another 10 persons at least who have seen DIEP's source code.
>>>>
>>>>If my openingsbook creator would request me to ship the source code to proof
>>>>something somewhere, i would blindfolded do it. Without hesitation.
>>>>
>>>>The List author doesn't even want to show it at his own laptop or own computer
>>>>or own whatever, at a mathcongress to Dr Ernst A Heinz, where he has to show up
>>>>in 2 weeks anyway. Of course in the sure know that Heinz is not a beginner and
>>>>has had his own bitboard program.
>>>>
>>>>So even Reuls paranoia source code excuse is no longer valid.
>>>>
>>>>What must the ICGA do in such a case then?
>>>>
>>>>Ban him of course.
>>>>
>>>>If they wouldn't, next year 100 shredder clones would show up.
>>>
>>>I have no problem with banning somebody who behave in the same way that list
>>>behaved.
>>>
>>>There are 2 problems:
>>>
>>>1)Banning a program in the middle of the tournament is wrong and it should be
>>>done after the tournament or before the tournament(in case that the banning is
>>>after the tournament it can include losing the title of world champion if it is
>>>needed).
>>>
>>>2)If somebody makes claims against another program then I want to see the proof
>>>for it.
>>>
>>>I have no problem with a rule that everybody has to show proof that he is not a
>>>clone of another program before the tournament but if there is no rule that says
>>>it I see no reason to ask List for the source code without good evidence against
>>>it.
>>>
>>>Maybe there was a good evidence against it but I saw no proof for it and it may
>>>be interesting to see the proof or if people do not want to give the proof in
>>>order not to do the task of cloners easier in the future it is enough for me if
>>>Bob Hyatt can be convinced about the proof.
>>>
>>>Uri
>>
>>The problem for me is that the evidence submitted was non-conclusive at
>>best.
>>
>>1.  Wrong version.  It wasn't from the version that would play, because
>>nobody had that version.
>>
>>2.  module names mean little, particularly if they are not almost all the
>>same.
>>
>>3.  I need something to look at.  IE the executable that is being questioned,
>>not an old version.  IE think about looking at an old gnuchess (non-bitboard)
>>version 4, to try to decide if version 5 is a clone (it does use bitboards).
>>
>>In short, the evidence was suspicious, but barely so, and there wasn't anything
>>I would be willing to use to say "this is a clone" as compared to the cases
>>of Bionic, Voyager and Le Petite where I did examine the executables and
>>was convinced beyond a shadow of a doubt that they were pure copies.
>>
>>I'm a firm believer of "innocent until proven guilty" and the proof here
>>is _very_ thin, based on that one email that I received.  It may well be
>>true.  Or it might not be.  I certainly can't form any solid opinion from
>>what I have been given so far, either here on CCC or via private email.
>>
>
>Even I believe in "innocent until proven guilty" and the initial outburst of
>mine in this topic here at CCC and ICC were due to this.
>I felt that the author was not given enough time to clarify his position.
>But reading whatever has been written here it looks more like he decided to
>ignore the warnings given to him.
>There seems to have been ample oppurtunity for him to have clarified everything.
>Also , considering that there is no fool proof way to detect a clone/code
>plagarism , it does make sense for ICGA to ask for source code - it is anyway
>already there in the tourny rules.
>Now I feel a bit stupid for whatever I posted in good faith.

I can assure you that you are not the only one feeling stupid about his previous
posts.
So, there are at least two of us. -:)

Uli

>
>Mridul
>
><snip>
>>BTW



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