Copying and re-selling chess DVDs

[John Upham]

What would be your reaction towards the copying of original and the selling of the duplicated chess DVDs / CDs via the Internet?

I am aware of this going on for ChessBase, Foxy, Roman and Susan Polgar DVDs.

Your reaction is sought.

[Andrew Camp]

Theft. Pure and simple.

[Tristan Clayton]

I'd like to know where such merchandise is available. So I could avoid them, obviously.

No, seriously, it's illegal and wrong and very, very naughty.

Besides, you might think you're getting a DVD of Roman giving the latest GM-level theory and end up with a disc featuring me in a wig recommending some dodgy line of the Latvian.

[matt_ward]

Yes that would make the majority of us criminals. So shall we all be put in prison!

Matt.

[Ben Hague]

I'd call it copyright infringement rather than theft, but that doesn't make it any less wrong. I suppose you could make a moral case for it being OK for DVDs that were no longer being produced or sold by the copyright owners, but I doubt that's the case, and of course it would still be illegal.

[matt_ward]

Well I bet if you ask most chess players 75% of them would of got a DVD or CD burnt from a family member or a friend sometime during there life. OR anyone else they knew that played chess to save money.

But of course this in against the rules, and is illegal and most importantly it shouldn't be happening, as its alot of chess players living or certainly an aspect of them doing chess DVD's is part of their income.

Matt.

[benedgell]

I've heard rumours of someone offering copied Chessbase cds as prizes at a tournament.

[matt_ward]

Oh dear, do not suppose you can mention the tournament just for curiosity. I imagine the tournament organiser has stopped doing this now.

matt.

[Warren Kingston]

I have just got back in to chess after many years away, so forgive my ignorance, but am I right in saying Chessbase is a list of games? If so isn't that theft in its own right? Doesn't the actually game moves belong to the two players concerned?
Is it possible Jones plays Smith, game goes on to DVD and Jones buys dodgy DVD of his own game and gets arrested?

[John Upham]

but am I right in saying Chessbase is a list of games?

ChessBase GmbH is a German company which produces top quality DVDs, books and chess software products such as

http://www.chessbase.com/shop/index.asp

They are most famous for the database product for game management.

[Warren Kingston]

Cheers John, so Chessbase 11 is?

Are the games you play, belong to you and your opponent? Or can some company come along and take your up to date variation you played ( that you worked out/discovered) plonk it on a DVD, sell it, make stacks of money, while your scrimping for a living.

Who is stealing from whom?

[Ljubica Lazarevic]

The act of copying and selling copied DVDs is theft as far as I am concerned. Yes no physical product has been stolen, but you are taking away money out of the system that would have been there if an available product had been purchased.

Why people somehow believe that torrenting software is perfectly OK, but stealing the same software product on a 10p media disk is theft and wrong is beyond me completely.

[Warren Kingston]

Aren't they stealing from the chess players?

Intellectual property rights, very broadly, are rights granted to creators and owners of works that are the result of human intellectual creativity.  The main intellectual property rights are: copyright, patents, trade marks, design rights, protection from passing off, and the protection of confidential information

Who owns the rights to all the Fischer v Spassky games? O, yeah Chessbase does!! Would it be possible for, say, Carlsen to stop companies/people using his work for gain?

[Alex McFarlane]

The scoresheets, and hence the moves written on them, are the property of the event.

This is claimed by FIDE.

It certainly allows an arbiter to check on number of moves played, draws by repetition, etc and insist that a player's scoresheet can be used to update the opponent's.

[Warren Kingston]

Alex, you're wrong there. Recording the moves, doesn't give FIDE the move/game rights. Footballers are going down this road, so clubs now buy the rights off the players before they sign for the club. Beckham, signed for Real, and gave his rights away. That's why Real signed him for the income and Beckham knew this and he got his cut.