Broadcast Limitations and Copyright of World Chess Events

[Wayne Komer]

Broadcast Limitations and Copyright of World Chess Events

March 4, 2016

When Mariya Muzychuk took part in the Ukrainian Championship December 8 to 14, 2015, her games were not published.

ChessBase said this at the time:

Because Muzychuk takes part in the Ukrainian Championship (not in the Women's championship but in the open Championship) the Ukrainian Federation decided to keep the games of this championship hidden from the public.

Therefore the games are neither transmitted on the Internet, nor published on the website of the tournament or other news pages. However, the organizer failed to explain in how far the other participants of the championship are affected by Muzychuk's preparation for the World Championship match, and whether their games also have to be kept secret. Apparently, the idea is to keep the whole of Ukrainian top chess inscrutable.

http://en.chessbase.com/post/secret-...hip-in-ukraine
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Now, the Women’s World Chess Championship is taking place in Lviv (March 2-18, 2016).

From Peter Doggers at chess.com:

The match is held in Lviv's Potockis’ Palace, quite an impressive building in late 19th century French Neorenaissance style. Usually it's used for conferences, presentations, chamber concerts, and political meetings. However, the games are played in a small room without spectators.

Most fans are following the match online, but they cannot do that in real-time. The games and the commentary on the official website are being broadcast with a 30-minute delay. Why exactly the organizers went for this draconian anti-cheating measure remains unclear, despite the words of GM Ian Rogers who is in Lviv:

The game broadcast will be delayed for half an hour, as an anti-cheating measure. FIDE has been reluctant to implement broadcast delays (which are hated by broadcasters, sponsors and fans alike) but the possibility of undetectable radio receivers is becoming worrying. Anti-cheating measures were the main point of contention between the Chinese team and the organisers, though it appeared to be more a misunderstanding about the measures to be implemented. (A number of security measures had been agreed between FIDE and the Chinese but were inexplicably not included in the players’ contracts.)

In the end, scanners, mobile phone blockers and transmission delays were all imposed. A Chinese security guard patrols the access area to the playing room and photographers have been requested to hold back sending their pictures of the start of the game until half an hour has passed.

The situation became even stranger when the first game ended, as IM David Martinez writes on Chess24, who transmits the moves and video on one page. It also seems the delay on the PGN file used to broadcast the moves was removed the moment the game ended. While that makes some sense as cheating is no longer possible, of course, it resulted in the absurd situation that the “live” video commentary was half an hour behind the action fans could see on the board!

https://www.chess.com/news/hou-yifan...mpionship-5693
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I asked myself how the chess world would react if both the Candidates and World Championship were behind closed doors and the transmission of moves, time-delayed?

Of course, it couldn’t happen in New York City, where they would want full media attention and large crowds, or could it!

Then this surprise announcement today:

Agon Ltd, the organizer of the World Chess Championship cycle, today announced that chess fans will be able to follow all the live action from the Candidates tournament by logging onto WorldChess.com.

All video footage as well as the moves from each game will be shown exclusively at WorldChess.com and by approved broadcast partners in certain countries.

This is a substantial change from the way chess has been broadcasted. Previously it was common practice that all websites were able to receive moves without broadcast limitations, resulting in a diffusion of major tournaments’ audiences and sponsorship values.

The move is designed to enhance and safeguard the viewing experience for chess fans and to protect the commercial future of World Championship events.

Ilya Merenzon, Chief Executive of Agon, said: “If we are to continue to grow the global appeal of chess for the benefit of all fans of the sport, we need to attract and retain further commercial sponsors. In order to do that we need to control how the World Chess Championship cycle is broadcast globally.

“This is the reality for all sports. For example, you would not expect the commercial rights holder to top-flight football to simply allow any website or broadcaster to screen live games. Controlling who can broadcast live games and the moves from the Candidates is exactly the same principle.”

The same broadcast conditions will apply to the World Championship Match in New York in November and all future events in the Championship cycle.

Mr Merenzon added: “This is simply a way to protect commercial value. It takes enormous money and effort to hold major chess events, and live transmission is a product of that effort. Chess fans will be able to follow the action for free from the Candidates tournament at worldchess.com, but they will have to agree to terms and conditions that include not re-transmitting the moves elsewhere. Same for tournament visitors and journalists.”

Chess fans will be able to follow the action from the Candidates tournament for free at WorldChess.com and in Norway on NRK. Coverage will also include live commentary of the games in progress, press conferences with the players and all the other news from the event.

http://www.agonlimited.com/news/2016...dcast-partners

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Does this mean, using NFL football as an example, where you cannot rebroadcast a game for your own profit nor use the descriptions on that broadcast in your newspaper, that the moves in the games cannot be given without Agon’s permission?

If someone gave the game in ChessTalk, could Agon ask for remuneration?

On the site link given just above, there is a downloadable position paper on the legal side of this question. It starts off this way:

Shekhovtsov & Partners

White Paper on Commercial Value and Protection of Exclusivity of Chess Moves during Broadcasts

Overview

The purpose of this white paper is to state the position that chess moves during live broadcasting are protected and represent commercial value. This document addresses the challenges arising in course of organization of major chess events in Russian Federation but the recommendations contained herein can be used when organizing other chess events as well.

Background

Due to the inherent features of the game of chess a simple move-by-move textual broadcasting can be even more valuable then a video or audio broadcasting of the event.

As it was determined in various court decisions in different jurisdictions including Bulgaria, the Russian Federation and the United States of America, a notation of a chess game lacks the necessary elements to be considered a copyright object. As of today, no universal default copyright-like legal protection has been attributed to the chess notations which often results in organizers of chess events suffering severe losses in sponsorship values and diffusion of audience due to the fact that numerous chess media free riders simply copy all the information from the events’ websites.

Thus, the use of additional legal tools is absolutely necessary to ensure the resolution of the free rider problem and helping chess organizers to realize sponsorship value.
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I realize that if chess wants big sponsorship, then the sponsors’ legal rights must be respected.

I also see a very slippery slope here leading to the possibility of copyrighting chess games and a limitation of freedoms.

Download the legal position white paper and see what you think.

Comments?

[Nigel Hanrahan]

Shouldn't the players also have a say?

There doesn't seem to be any mention of the rights of the players whose efforts are reflected in the moves of the game. When artists create something new, even words on a page, they can get copyright protection. Shouldn't the players also have a say? Why not?

[Steve Douglas]

Re: Shouldn't the players also have a say?

There doesn't seem to be any mention of the rights of the players whose efforts are reflected in the moves of the game. When artists create something new, even words on a page, they can get copyright protection. Shouldn't the players also have a say? Why not?

And if I, the artist, throw a touchdown pass in an NFL game it doesn't give me broadcast rights to that game, does it?

Steve

[Peter McKillop]

Re: Shouldn't the players also have a say?

And if I, the artist, throw a touchdown pass in an NFL game it doesn't give me broadcast rights to that game, does it?

Steve

I agree with Nigel (good Lord! did I really say that?). Comparing chess to football relative to copyright issues isn't even a close enough comparison to be called tenuous. Professional players need an ASCAP/PGA-style organization to look after their interests.

[Nigel Hanrahan]

Would players have joint copyright of some kind?

Professional players need an ASCAP/PGA-style organization to look after their interests.

Exactly. In the case of ice hockey, a sport we know well in Canada, the players have their NHLPA which helps the players get a share of revenue from all sorts of activities that depend upon them, money goes to player pensions from playoff games, etc.. [supplemental: and we can see how players divided along political lines, say some supporting FIDE and others associated with another organization, could weaken or nullify efforts for players to look after their interests. But that is just a sidebar, fyi.]

Supposing the players get a bite of copyright, does this mean joint copyright for the two players in a game? There's an interesting idea.

[David Ottosen]

Re: Would players have joint copyright of some kind?

Exactly. In the case of ice hockey, a sport we know well in Canada, the players have their NHLPA which helps the players get a share of revenue from all sorts of activities that depend upon them, money goes to player pensions from playoff games, etc.. [supplemental: and we can see how players divided along political lines, say some supporting FIDE and others associated with another organization, could weaken or nullify efforts for players to look after their interests. But that is just a sidebar, fyi.]

Supposing the players get a bite of copyright, does this mean joint copyright for the two players in a game? There's an interesting idea.

I would find it hard to believe an organization wouldn't define this in the player contracts as part of the conditions, along the lines of "the organizers retain copyright over the games" or whatever.

[Steve Douglas]

Re: Shouldn't the players also have a say?

I agree with Nigel (good Lord! did I really say that?). Comparing chess to football relative to copyright issues isn't even a close enough comparison to be called tenuous. Professional players need an ASCAP/PGA-style organization to look after their interests.

I didn't make the original comparison with football. I was responding to Nigel in respect to three things:

a) I do not consider chess players playing a game in tournament conditions to be "artists" with the corresponding copyright of their "product". Nigel was referring to the "rights" of the players with respect to broadcast of their "art".

b) Broadcast/first publication rights are not the same as underlying copyright.

c) The players playing in the tournament are not there for the purpose of broadcasting moves. They are there to play them.

The players also have the right to not play in the tournament in the first place.

I could go on at length but will not (I can hear the cheering and applause now.) I very firmly do not believe that a chess game (i.e. a record of the moves) honestly played between two players can be copyrighted, particularly in a major event (let alone world championship) that is open to viewing by the public. A record of the moves is simply a record of what happened in an event. (The actual scoresheet of either of the players is another matter.)

The issue(s) here is that of the broadcast of those moves, *as they are made*, and anti-cheating provisions. I can fully understand why an organizer or sponsor would want to have control of that broadcast. And I can fully understand the need to take measures to limit cheating.

But I do not want to see a "world champion" announced weeks after the event allegedly took place in a closed room and only then do we get to see what games were allegedly played.

Steve

[Nigel Hanrahan]

management retains control over all matters not mentioned in a contract, etc.

I would find it hard to believe an organization wouldn't define this in the player contracts as part of the conditions, along the lines of "the organizers retain copyright over the games" or whatever.

Working conditions are whatever the two sides agree on. In ice hockey there have been both strikes (1) and (3) lockouts in recent memory, so it's clear that both sides are willing to go to the mat to get what they want. The NHL's failure to "break" the NHLPA in the most recent lockout suggests that it's not all one side getting what they want.

Mind you, as demonstrated amply by this very discussion board, getting chess players to agree on almost anything is like herding cats. So those who organize events can probably walk all over the players in terms of conditions.

Chess is notoriously difficult to commercialize. It's not completely clear to me whether this is a good thing or a bad thing.

[Garland Best]

Re: management retains control over all matters not mentioned in a contract, etc.

Fischer was highly successful at raising the prize money and improving conditions for chess players. Kasparov was much less so, causing a split in the championship in what he personally called the biggest mistake of his chess career. He demonstrated that an individual player, no matter how influential, does not represent the sport as a whole.

Kasparov had the right idea with the GMA only to break away from it. Today the ACP exists, but so far their influence is weak. Should the ACP ever strengthen their position, and start developing means to better conditions for non-elite GMs, then I think it would benefit the players.

[Wayne Komer]

Broadcast Limitations and Copyright of World Chess Events

Broadcast Limitations and Copyright of World Chess Events

March 9, 2016

With the Candidates quickly coming up, it has not been clear just how Agon’s restrictions of the broadcast would work.

Peter Doggers at chess.com:

(Agon has announced) that not only the video footage but also the actual chess games will be available exclusively on the website WorldChess.com (and “approved broadcast partners in certain countries, ” which seems to be only NRK in Norway at the moment). In other words, Agon intends to make it impossible for e.g. Chessbase, ICC, Chess24, Chessdom, Chess.com and others to transmit the games in real time. Agon wants to follow this strategy for all its future events including the 2016 World Championship in New York.

Whereas it acknowledges that chess games are part of the public domain, Agon mostly has a problem with other sites showing the games in real-time. It will therefore ask chess media to deliver the games to the public with a time delay. Taking into account the five requirements of the ”hot news doctrine,” relaying the games with a delay seems a serious option for chess sites.

The big question is: what is a proper delay? Talking to Chess.com Mr Merenzon has mentioned a delay of an hour, but that seems very long. Chess sites are probably thinking in an order of minutes.

Update 9 March: in a legal letter sent to chess websites, Agon has now specified its desired delay: not one but two hours.

“However, we would like to mention that you are free to use the information about chess moves of any game of the Tournament two hours after the end of such game - we will be publishing PGN files for universal use shortly after the game finishes.”

Two sites are giving updates on the situation:

https://www.chess.com/news/candidate...ess-sites-5161

http://www.chessdom.com/agons-new-po...a-in-jeopardy/

http://www.chessdom.com/update-on-ag...-policy-story/

[Rene Preotu]

Re: Broadcast Limitations and Copyright of World Chess Events

Chessbomb didn't care too much about Agon's new policy.

http://blog.chessbomb.com/2016/03/ca...tart-with.html

http://www.chessbomb.com/arena/2016-candidates

[Adam Cormier]

Re: Broadcast Limitations and Copyright of World Chess Events

Chessbomb didn't care too much about Agon's new policy.

http://blog.chessbomb.com/2016/03/ca...tart-with.html

http://www.chessbomb.com/arena/2016-candidates

So basically chessbomb is going wikileaks style to get the moves with only the slightest delay seems smart to me, found a site to watch the candidates at 6am on.

[Nigel Hanrahan]

Agon subject to DoS attack and takes legal action against rogue chess websites

Agon notes a Denial of Service Attack on their website (from whom? Commercial rivals? The US government? Elves? Who benefits from such attacks? I guess that is the question.) and that they have begun legal action against Chess24, InternetChessClub, Chessgames and Chessbomb.

March 12, 2016 -- Agon Ltd, the organizer of the World Chess Championship cycle, has launched legal action against four chess websites for blatantly flouting restrictions on the live broadcasting of the games and moves at the Candidates tournament in Moscow.

Chess24, InternetChessClub, Chessgames and Chessbomb have all received, or are about to receive, injunctions from Agon Ltd, demanding that they immediately desist on live broadcasting the moves from the games at the Candidates. Chessbomb went as far as to create an app so that people who were viewing the games on the WorldChess website could leak them anonymously.

During the first round of the Candidates Tournament, Agon’s WorldChess.com, which has exclusive rights to broadcast the games, suffered major denial of services attacks designed to crash the website. Throughout the day as these attacks were ongoing, the rogue websites, that are now subject to legal action from Agon, took to social media to promote their live coverage of the Candidates.

Why the new approach?

Mr Merenzon said: “If we are to continue to grow the global appeal of chess for the benefit of all fans of the sport, we need to attract and retain further commercial sponsors. In order to do that we need to control how the World Chess Championship cycle is broadcast globally.

Mr Merenzon added: “This is simply a way to protect commercial value. It takes enormous money and effort to hold major chess events, and live transmission is a product of that effort. Chess fans will be able to follow the action for free from the Candidates tournament at worldchess.com, but they will have to agree to terms and conditions that include not re-transmitting the moves elsewhere.”

[Nigel Hanrahan]

pgn files will be released asap

Supplemental from Agon: "Please note that from Round 2 of the Candidates Tournament, the PGN files of the moves will be released on the official site and WorldChess.com immediately after the conclusion of each game, rather than two hours afterwards.

This step has been undertaken after consultation with media organisations around the world and we are delighted to take this step so news of the results can be distributed with greater speed."

Change in the timing of the release of pgn files.

[Nigel Hanrahan]

"Chess moves are discovered rather than created..."

An interesting quote from an article criticizing Agon (on their Website, fyi)...

It has been tried before (chess historian Edward Winter catalogs some of the attempts and debates on the matter going back to the 1800s), but it clearly has failed. There don’t seem to have been any recent test cases here in the United States, but in a 2011 article in the Journal of Intellectual Property Law & Practice (then-law student, now attorney) Alisa Melekhina, who is also a master, and law professor Neal Orkin wrote that chess moves are discovered rather than created. For this reason chess games cannot be copyrighted any more than E = mc² or 32 = 8 x 4 (which were their examples).

Dennis Monokroussos seems to have been persuasive. I see that Agon is now releasing the pgn files right away. Maybe he can talk to the Americans about their Cuban embargo. If he can solve chess issues, global politics will be nothing to solve. Heh.

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