"Last week, ChessBase was apparently ‘forced to cease Internet broadcasting of the Topalov-Kamsky match’. As we noted in our report on the first match game, live broadcasting of the chess moves in this match without permission was prohibited by the Bulgarian Chess Federation (although they didn’t seem to have a problem with Chessdom’s, Crestbook’s, ICC’s and TWIC’s live coverage). This has led to heated discussions on this site. The key question here is: can you copyright a chess move at all ?"
Originally posted by gaychessplayer As I understand it, the moves themselves are public domain, but any analysis of the moves is protected by copyright.
That is correct.
That's similar to the difference between the white pages and yellow pages.
Under U.S. case law the white pages are not copyrightable, while yellow pages are copyrightable.
"Last week, ChessBase was apparently ‘forced to cease Internet broadcasting of the Topalov-Kamsky match’. As we noted in our report on the first match game, live broadcasting of the chess moves in this match without permission was prohibited by the Bulgarian Chess Federation (although they didn’t seem to have a problem with Chessdom’s, ...[text shortened]... hadows-on-the-wall/
What's your opinion ?
Should there be copyright on chess moves ?
I reviewed the articles. It appears that while BCF President Dr. Stefan Sergiev was quoted as saying; "This is a precedent in the world of chess and we are grateful to attorney Polzin for his assistance. This case will serve as a lesson to everybody who violates the copyright law." this is not a copyright case but a breach of a license agreement.
I noticed that the viewer for the game included the following. "Warning! It is absolutely prohibited the live broadcast of the moves or video during the game on other websites, media or software without the explicit permission of the orginizers [sic] of the match."
Therefore, breach of this potentially implied license may be actionable. I would assume that this was the actual legal threat, rather than copyright violation. Of course, even that is very, very weak. My guess is that ChessBase decided that after doing the risk v. reward analysis it wasn't worth continuing with the "live" broadcast of the match.
Would have thought it was more breach of confidentiality. Everyone present would have been obliged to keep the actual moves played confidential and whoever let out the moves was in breach of this obligation. i.e. the moves played should not have been released in to the public domain (except as controlled).
Originally posted by greenpawn34 Not a new idea, they tried to copyright some of Lasker's World Championship matches.
I've often thought how unfair non-copyright of games is.
Karpov (picked at random) can play a beautiful game and all he will
get from it is the 1 point and some satisfaction.
But anyone, yes anyone, even a hack like me, can take the moves
of the game, note t ...[text shortened]... ight payroll or am I guilty of plagiarism?
The deeper you dig the more worms are unearthed.
Given all the worms, I think it's probably best to leave bad enough alone. Keep the games as public domain, but copyright the analysis. I'm sure that Mr. Karpov got paid plenty for playing in the tournaments in which he played brilliant games. Then, he can (and has) publish books of his games with his own analysis.
Copyright on chess moves .....
03 Mar '09 19:29
Back to Top