Re: Nalimov 5 pieces complete tablebases for sale on 2 DVD

In rec.games.chess.computer TR <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> Robert Hyatt <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message news:<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>...
>> In rec.games.chess.computer -= Judd Niemann =- <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>> > Dude. I think you got it wrong there. There is no copyright on the
>> > tablebases themselves. You can generate them on your PC for free, if you
>> > have the time.
>> 
>> yes, but you can't sell 'em.  That's the point.  Eugene holds the
>> copyright on the program that produces the tables.  The tables then
>> fall under that copyright since only that program produces them.
>> 
>> 
>> 
>  [snip]

> Do you have a citation to case law (or the statutes) to support this
> idea? I'm not arguing, just asking. I don't keep up with copyright law
> any more, but this strikes me as a novel theory.

> Under your theory, if I came up with a program that computed pi to
> more digits than any other existing program, could I copyright pi (or
> maybe the newly computed digits)?


Think "computer-generated musical score".  Would that be copyrightable?
Yes, because it is the product of a copyrighted program.

The idea of patents is a bit absurd nowadays.  IE someone holds a patent
on a program that transposes music from one key to another.  That is a
pure mathematical formula (such as the quadratic equation) which is 
supposedly not patentable.  But the patent was granted and is still in
force.

I don't believe you could copyright a string of digits.  But an endgame
table (Nalimov's tables) are not just a string of digits.  They are
compressed with a copyrighted compression algorithm.  They are compressed
by a unique indexing scheme.  Etc.




-- 
Robert M. Hyatt, Ph.D.          Computer and Information Sciences
[EMAIL PROTECTED]                   University of Alabama at Birmingham
(205) 934-2213                  136A Campbell Hall
(205) 934-5473 FAX              Birmingham, AL 35294-1170