Chessbase Violation

[playjunior]

It is not a violation to relay the moves just like it is not illegal to say what the live score is of any match or game that is otherwise protected. Not knowing this fact relfects very poorly to the organizers of the Topalov vs Kramsky match. Only a very uninformed idiot would think that relaying moves is a violation.

Agreed.

[M ANSARI]

It is not a violation to relay the moves just like it is not illegal to say what the live score is of any match or game that is otherwise protected. Not knowing this fact relfects very poorly to the organizers of the Topalov vs Kramsky match. Only a very uninformed idiot would think that relaying moves is a violation.

What I found really sad was that their website was very slow. I had to view the game on Chess Chess Assistant Club.

By the way ... where is the official site coverage?

[AdminX]

It is not a violation to relay the moves just like it is not illegal to say what the live score is of any match or game that is otherwise protected. Not knowing this fact relfects very poorly to the organizers of the Topalov vs Kramsky match. Only a very uninformed idiot would think that relaying moves is a violation.

What I found really sad was that their website was very slow. I had to view the game on Chess Chess Assistant Club.

By the way ... where is the official site coverage?

http://www.wccc2009.com/

[Harvey Williamson]

The video feed is very likely protected by law, but the simple relaying of moves as they are played in a public forum is most certainly not prohibited by any statute.

It is quite possible that claiming an illegality where there isn't one may itself be illegal.

If I read the message from the original broadcasters correctly it is only
prohibited to relay anything _during_ the game is still played.
IMO this is covered by laws if they have exclusive rights, as it happens
in any sports at least here in Europe, especially as in chess there is
practically no more to report than the moves and the result.
AFAIK they must wait until the game is _over_ before relaying the moves
otherwise their exclusive rights are worth nothing.

Guenther

I remember a few years ago the BBC had exclusive Radio commentary rights for the Premier League. A rival broadcaster also did a live commentary by watching the game on TV. They were allowed to do this as long as they did not pretend they were at the game and periodically said they were commentating from TV pictures.

[terminator]

ChessBase have self-banned themselves according to the following text on their broadcast at Playchess

Dear Playchess members, dear chess friends

The officials of the Bulgarian Chess Federation and the organisation of the World Chess Challenge Match in Sofia between Topalov vs Kamsky do not want us to cover the match Topalov vs Kamsky anymore. In order to prevent damage for ChessBase GmbH we decided NOT to cover the game – at least for today.

The disclaimer of the official site is as follows: "All copyright, trade marks, design rights, patents and other intellectual property rights (registered and unregistered) in and on www.wccc2009.com and all content (including all applications) located on the site shall remain vested in the Bulgarian Chess Federation or its licensors. You may not copy, reproduce, republish, disassemble, decompile, reverse engineer, download, post, broadcast, transmit, make available to the public, or otherwise use www.wccc2009.com content in any way except for your own personal, non-commercial use. You also agree not to adapt, alter or create a derivative work from any www.wccc2009.com content except for your own personal, non-commercial use. Any other use of www.wccc2009.com content requires the prior written permission of the Bulgarian Chess Federation. "

We are sorry that we can not provide you with the moves of this exciting match. If possible we will resume the coverage for the following games.

We kindly request all users today NOT to start a broadcast of the game (private broadcasts are excluded). For those who wish to follow the match we recommand you Mark Crowther's TWIC site: http://www.chesscenter.com/twic/twic.html

[Dirt]

This article on Slashdot brings up a legal principle that I was unaware of that maybe relevant to this situation. Apparently breaking news can enjoy 'quasi-property' rights which prevents others from taking commercial advantage of it even when the information is an uncopyrightable fact. I've never heard of this being applied to chess moves, but the idea seems plausible.

[Marc Lacrosse]

ChessBase have self-banned themselves according to the following text on their broadcast at Playchess

They send you to delayed reports on TWIC whereas they perfectly know that there is good real-time relay with nice GM comments on ICC...

Marc

[terminator]

Actually this might not be such a bad thing ... if ChessBase or ICC cough some dough rather than free-loading, then future events could have better kitty for the players. In this instance the funding for the event came from Bulgarian public funds not some rich benefactor.