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Broadcast Limitations and Copyright of World Chess Events
Re: Agon subject to DoS attack and takes legal action against rogue chess websites
The latest I heard is that the Denial of Service attack was either a fabrication or a misunderstanding (at best). FIDE and their puppet Agon are never very forthcoming with the real story... Kudos to sites like Chessbomb for showing up these incompetent fools...
To the uninitiated, the chess universe might be expected to mirror the game itself: slow, quiet and subsequently tedious, with a great many terms, names and manoeuvres that are hard to understand and even harder to pronounce.
By: Murray Whyte Visual arts, Published on Sun Mar 15 2009
To the uninitiated, the chess universe might be expected to mirror the game itself: slow, quiet and subsequently tedious, with a great many terms, names and manoeuvres that are hard to understand and even harder to pronounce.
Hockey Night in Canada, in other words, it's not (though with the surfeit of Russian players, it may share the pronunciation predicament). But quiet? Tedious? Hal Bond begs to differ.
Bond made the trek from his home in Guelph to Sofia, Bulgaria, last month for the World Chess Challenge. Acting as match supervisor for the semi-finals between hometown hero Veselin Topalov and Russian-born, U.S.-based challenger Gata Kamsky, Bond describes a scene that suggests a world bubbling with internecine intrigue.
In Sofia's National Palace of Culture, the match room was darkened to prevent cues from the audience; a signal-jamming device blocked potential cheat sheets from being beamed in from outside; and during bathroom breaks, Bond dispatched a security detail with each player, to ensure that any relief was of the purely physical variety.
Given the intense scrutiny and suspicion that seems to attend the highest levels of the game, it should come as no surprise that the drama extended beyond the palace walls. It began when the Bulgarian Chess Federation, citing copyright infringement, barred ChessBase, the world's biggest online chess portal, from broadcasting the match live, move by move, in a text format as it had been doing without the federation's permission.
ChessBase stopped, as ordered. "They issued a cease and desist, and we complied," ChessBase co-founder Frederic Friedel wrote in an email to Bond. "It is too expensive, time-wise, to get involved in protracted lawsuits with Bulgarians, and there is little to gain, monetarily, from a victory."
What didn't stop was the resurrection of an age-old question that stretches beyond the relatively particular chess realm and into the broader arena of sporting events and intellectual property rights in an increasingly instantaneous media world. Can a game, a match, an idea, or even a move be copyrighted if it is done in public?
Michael Geist, who holds the Canada Research Chair in Internet and E-Commerce Law at the University of Ottawa, laughs at the notion.
"Copyright law doesn't protect ideas, it protects the expression of those ideas," Geist states, cautioning that his familiarity with Bulgarian intellectual property law isn't flawless.
Take the Leafs: "The way (Mikhail) Grabovski passes the puck isn't subject to copyright; the CBC's broadcast of it would be."
Notwithstanding Grabovski's reluctance to pass at all, using a chess move you saw online isn't copyright infringement any more than attempting a Savardian spin-o-rama – the balletic move of former Montreal Canadiens great Serge Savard (though it has also been attributed to Chicago Blackhawks legend Denis Savard) – or an air-walking Michael Jordanesque lay-in, however embarrassingly unsuccessful you might be.
And while neither Kamsky nor Topalov's moves could be protected, the rights to their being broadcast certainly could.
In the much larger arena of NFL football, the same issue has recently come to bear over the surfeit of bloggers gaining accreditation as official members of the media covering the games.
Last season, most were barred from live blogging at the stadiums themselves on the grounds that their presence infringed on the official, live-broadcast-rights owners (though, oddly, sitting on the couch at home and doing the same thing would constitute no such infringement).
That being the case, ChessBase was off base. But the broader assertion that the moves themselves could become the exclusive intellectual property of their creators has nothing to do with the Internet era. Bond recalls such debates having been on the chess agenda "for a couple of decades, at least."
Susan Polgar, a former women's world chess champion and tireless advocate of the game, says that the reasonable request of the Bulgarian Federation has ended up being conflated with the copyright issue.
"I wouldn't mind getting paid every time my moves are used," she laughs. "But I have a hard time envisioning how it would be enforced."
For Bond, it's not how it would be enforced, but if it should be. "It just doesn't work," he says. "And if it ever did come into play, it would turn the chess world on its ear."
For chess, an ancient game that has evolved into a highly particularized fascination – especially in a world where the Xbox and PlayStation 3 rule the gaming lives of most anyone under 25 – mass sharing has given the game new life.
"One of the things that keeps the game alive is this instant transfer of data: examining opponents' previous games, probing for weaknesses, learning new moves you can apply," says Bond, who runs The Chess Express, a chess school in Guelph.
"If there was a move to suppress that, the game could change pretty quickly."
For those players who bemoan the repetition of their signature manoeuvres, Bond offers a remedy not couched in unrequited legalese.
"Grandmasters will guard signature moves for five or six years until they have an opponent worthy enough to use it on," he says. "That's how you copyright a move: You keep it to yourself."
copying an entire article about copyright is ironic, no?
Wayne, it's interesting that you would quote, in its entirety AFAIK, an article about copyright, thus violating basic copyright principles (and law) yourself. [I know it's a bit of work but we should all get in the habit of summarizing what we read and stringing together a bunch of quotes rather than (etc.) ...]
Chess players have no respect. No wonder it's often withheld from us as well.
It's a good article but the whole issue of the copyright of chess moves is a distraction. Agon does not claim to copyright the moves. As far as I can tell, as soon as the games are over, the pgn files are posted.
Last edited by Nigel Hanrahan; Monday, 14th March, 2016, 01:49 AM.
Reason: pgn note etc
Dogs will bark, but the caravan of chess moves on.
Agon should enforce their broadcast rights. They are trying to preserve/extract commercial value from the tournament that they have funded through sponsors and investment. Hopefully their efforts will bear fruit.
They would make their lives much simpler if they could deliver the event in a way that met with expectations. They seem to be learning as they go which has surprised most of us. At least they listen and respond.
The important thing is that there's still an option to follow live.
Yes, worldchess.com does require people to log in through twitter, or facebook, or to provide an e-mail account, which may seem a bit annoying. I provided my hotmail address, which has finally provided me with a reason for existence in the past 10 years, and is littered with junk mail over the years and I don't care if I get more of it.
The official site is often best anyway, compared to some other alternative websites. I have enjoyed GM Evgeny Miroshnichenko's commentary before and he's doing great again. This time he is paired up with GM Alexandra Kosteniuk, whose commentary I never listened to before but is also very good. Their chemistry is not always optimal but the program has been great. Some chess analyzes (apart from live games themselves, some interesting positions with relevance / reference to a game that has taken place in these candidates), quizzes, interviews, etc... They have had Gelfand, Kramnik briefly do live analyzes as well. All top level players seem to like this idea as it is professionalizing chess. So... at the 'personal sacrifice' of providing my hotmail address, I get *everything*. Complainers are welcome to enjoy their delay with second-tier commentary.
My browser may be misbehaving, but I am unable to click thru the games on the offical site. Seeing the current position is nice, I guess, but I'd like to see how they got there, and computer analysis of options for the next move.
So for me, the official site is useless. I'll play thru the games on Chessbomb or Chessbase, at my leisure. I don't need to see the games live.
Agon is making their broadcast incrementally better
I see that this thread has rolled off the first page into oblivion. That's too bad because Agon has steadily improved their broadcast day by day. Today, for example, they have improved things so that ...
Originally posted by Agon
[FEATURE UPDATE] As you probably noticed, we are trying to improve the broadcast module on daily basis. As of today, you can browse through moves by using the keyboard arrows (this was one of the most requested features and very sorry it came so late).
ETA: The download feature of the pgn files is also improved. There was a glitch with round 7 (annoying delay) but they seem to have gotten over that and the pgn files are available very quickly after the games are over. It's still one by one - but since there are only 4 games/round, that's no biggie ...
It's too bad that those who are noisiest about complaints aren't as well the noisiest about compliments over improvements. In any case, these improvements should bode well for the W Ch in NYC in November.
Last edited by Nigel Hanrahan; Monday, 21st March, 2016, 02:53 PM.
Reason: ETA
Dogs will bark, but the caravan of chess moves on.
"Agon, the company that organizes the World Chess Championship cycle, is to offer media organisations around the world free articles from worldchess.com."
“We want to get back to a situation where regular articles on chess are common to all media websites – not just the remaining few that have the resources to directly employ expert chess writers.”
Initially worldchess.com will provide a copyright-free weekly column from editor Dylan McClain. Dylan is the former chess columnist of the New York Times and one of the best known chess journalists in the world.
His weekly column will provide unique insights into the latest developments in the world of chess. The Huffington Post has signed up to feature McClain’s column with the first appearing last week.
Their weekly collection of games in a variety of formats is particularly helpful. But this is not the same as what WorldChess is doing. The latter is providing copyright-free articles. This means, I think, that anyone can post the articles (and not just read them) on their own websites, etc. It's as much or more a service to other chess websites, or sites without expertise that want some chess coverage, as a service to end-users.
Dogs will bark, but the caravan of chess moves on.
Re: Broadcast Limitations and Copyright of World Chess Events
Broadcast Limitations and Copyright of World Chess Events
November 14, 2017
Agon does not give up. Here is their recent proposal delivered at the FIDE meeting in Turkey.
Brian Towers on the EC Forum: I guess Agon haven't read the bit in the FIDE principles of being against blacklists in general.
If they've any sense they'll send Mr Shekhovtsov and Agon away with a flea in their ear.
Proposal of Agon Limited on Protection of Live Chess Moves
To: Members of the Working Group to Study the Proposal of Agon Limited on Protection of Live Chess Moves
Dear Members of the Working Group,
First of all, I would like to thank Mr Strydom, Mr Rivello and Ms Sperdokli for their valuable comments to the Agon Limited proposal presented at the last Presidential Board meeting in March, 2017. All of them were taken into consideration when developing the wording of the draft FIDE Live Moves Broadcasting Policy (“Draft Policy”) attached to this letter.
The Draft Policy recognizes the right of the World Chess Federation to control the live dissemination of the FIDE events’ moves. Furthermore, it provides for the measures to be taken against persons interfering with this right.
Pursuant to the Policy there are two types of violators – Type 1 and Type 2. Type 1 includes the members of FIDE family, whereas Type 2 covers organizations and individuals, who are not part of the FIDE family.
The measures to be taken against Type 1 violators are already previewed in the Code of Ethics – the Draft Policy merely introduces the new rule that members of FIDE family shall comply with.
As for the Type 2 violators, the Policy provides for indirect measures. Those persons are subject to inclusion to special FIDE list (“Blacklist”) and members of FIDE family are prohibited from cooperating with the blacklisted persons. Thus, the measures have an indirect effect – the prohibition is obligatory for members of FIDE family, and its violation shall be treated as the breach of FIDE Code of Ethics by the member of FIDE family.
This method of restrictions on cooperation is similar to the EU or US sanctions, even thought the scope of the prohibition and its objectives are quite different from the political sanctions.
The main idea behind this prohibition is that chess community shall make an effort to ban free-riders from using the infrastructure provided by it. Individuals and organizations that do not respect the efforts of the chess events organizers and federations and continue to profit on live chess moves information without contributing to the staging of the events reduce the value of chess as professional sport and, thus, hinder its development and popularization.
The prohibition will serve as a measure aimed at:
- making it possible for FIDE and FIDE events organizers to use on exclusive basis or sell the rights to live move-by-move broadcasting, thus providing an additional stream of revenue for FIDE events;
- stopping the practice of organization of unauthorized live move-by-move broadcasts by the third parties that only free-ride on the efforts of FIDE and organizers of its events, without contributing to the events themselves;
- will prevent chess players and other chess professionals from participating in these reprehensible practices.
Further, I would like to address the issues raised by Mr Strydom and Mr Rivello in their comments to the initial proposal.1
Who will be the "proprietor" of the broadcasting rights in the event of a tournament being held under the auspices of a federation or if the tournament is privately staged?
FIDE will be the “proprietor” of the broadcasting rights. The players will transfer this rights under the contracts for participation together with other commercial rights. The said rights will form a part of the TV and Internet broadcasting rights that are usually assigned to the organizer of the FIDE event in order to make it possible for the organizer to commercialize the event.
The FIDE Code of Ethics cannot be enforced against the members of general public that cannot somehow be brought into the notion of the "FIDE family".
This is a very valuable point that was brought up by Mr Strydom. As it was mentioned earlier, the Draft Policy is only enforceable against the members of the FIDE family. Nevertheless, it effectively excludes the non-FIDE-family violators from the cooperation with the FIDE family chess community. I believe that this resolves the issue of freedom of commercial association and pursuit of commercial activity as well as the restrictions only apply to the members of FIDE family.
Finally, there are still several questions that need to be addressed once the wording of the Policy is finalized.
The first one being the possibility of implementation of similar policies on the national federation level and their recognition and enforcement by FIDE. I see the development of Model Broadcasting Policy for national federations as a perfect tool to address this.
The second question is the temporary application of the Broadcasting Policy for the period after its approval by the working group and the Presidential Board/the Executive Board and its approval by the General Assembly. The point here is that at least FIDE can apply the prohibition on cooperation for this period, providing the idea to all the interested parties on how the Policy should work. However, in such case it is still to be decided which FIDE body or commission will take responsibility for updating the list of violators and who will have the final decision when it comes to establishing the fact of violation during this temporary period.
I am looking forward to receiving your comments and suggestions on both this letter and attached Draft Policy. Thank you for your consideration on this matter!
Sincerely,
Matvey Shekhovtsov
Matvey Shekhovtsov Member of Agon Limited/FIDE Interface Team
Agon Limited 10th of April 2017
________
* see documents for 1st Quarter Presidential Board Meeting, Athens, Greece, 25-26 March 2017 (Annex 47A).
FIDE LIVE MOVES BROADCASTING POLICY
1. Introduction
1.1. This section describes the Live moves broadcasting policy of FIDE (“Policy”).
1.2. This Policy shall govern what action may be taken against any person (meaning either an individual or organization) that deliberately or through gross negligence violates the exclusive right to organize live move-by-move broadcast of FIDE events.
1.3. The FIDE Ethics Commission is responsible for any actions to be taken in accordance with this Policy.
2. Right to organize live moves broadcasting
2.1. FIDE shall have the exclusive right to organize the live move-by-move broadcast of FIDE events (“Broadcasting right”). FIDE may at its sole discretion assign this right to third parties, including the organizer’s of FIDE events and/or its appointed commercial agencies.
2.2. The exclusivity of the Broadcasting right shall only extend for the whole duration of the broadcasted game. After the end of the game the notation can be used without any further restrictions.
2.3. Use of up to 10 consecutive moves in one piece of communication (e.g. on one web-page; in one video piece) shall be regarded as fair use which does not interfere with the Broadcasting right.
3. Violation of the Broadcasting right
3.1. The following actions shall be regarded as violations of the Broadcasting right:
a) unauthorized live move-by-move broadcasting of FIDE events via any means of communication including, but not limited to Internet, Radio and Television;
b) participation in the unauthorized live move-by-move broadcasting as commentator or author;
c) advertising and/or promoting unauthorized live move-by-move broadcasting.2
4. Violators
4.1. Type I violators («Violators I») include persons listed in item 1.4 of the FIDE Code of Ethics that performed actions listed in item 3.1 of this Policy.
4.2. Type II violators («Violators II») include persons who are not listed in item 1.4 of the FIDE Code of Ethics that performed actions listed in item 3.1 of this Policy.
4.3. The fact of the violation shall be determined by the FIDE Ethics Commission upon the complaint of the Broadcasting right holder
5. Measures to be taken in respect of Violators I.
5.1. Violation of the Broadcasting right by Violators I shall be considered to be a breach of the FIDE Code of Ethics.
5.2. The general procedure previewed by the FIDE Code of Ethics and respective punishments shall apply.
6. Measures to be taken in respect of Violators II.
6.1. Violators II shall be added to the special list (“FIDE Blacklist”) for the period to be determined by the FIDE Ethics Commission on the basis of the severity of violation. Such period in any case shall not exceed 10 (ten) years. 2 This item does not apply to automated advertising services like Google AdWords or Yahoo! Bing Network.
6.2. Persons listed in item 1.4 of the FIDE Code of Ethics are prohibited from entering into any commercial or other cooperation, partnership or any other contractual relationship with the persons listed on FIDE Blacklist. Violation of this provision shall be considered a breach of the FIDE Code of Ethics.
6.3. FIDE Secretariat shall be responsible for updating the FIDE Blacklist in accordance with the decisions of the FIDE Ethics Commission and publishing it on the FIDE website.
6.4. Person may be excluded from the FIDE Blacklist if it reaches an amicable agreement with the Broadcasting right holder and undertakes to abstain from violating the Broadcasting right in future.
Re: Broadcast Limitations and Copyright of World Chess Events
This might work in Russia but I am sure that there are a large number of laws which would run counter to implementing this anywhere in the west particularly with the large number of legal decisions affirming that there is no copyright on chess moves.
Re: Broadcast Limitations and Copyright of World Chess Events
Just thinking out loud here.
The dissemination of chess moves at the conclusion of play is one thing, but I assume Agon is trying to control dissemination of chess moves as the game is being played. Two thoughts here.
1) If you go on sites like NHL.com, you can select a game a follow it live and see a stream of text along the lines of:
0:03 Give away by Zach Werenski
0:26 Thomas Plekanec Wrist Shot saved by Sergei Bobrovsky
Is this analogous to broadcasting chess moves? If so, what rights do these sites have to restrict others from disseminating those statements?
2) Am I correct that Agon is perfectly within their rights to restrict access and broadcast rights to video of the players actually playing? Course, watching two players playing is akin to watching grass grow. It's the live analysis of the games as they go on that is interesting, and for that you only need the moves.
The only time it really gets interesting watching the players is during fast time controls. My favorite to date was the tournament last year where Kasparov played in St. Luis. Watching Maurice Ashley and Jennifer Shahade freak out over Wesley So's game was a blast. That is the best you can get in chess as an interesting televised sporting event.
Re: Broadcast Limitations and Copyright of World Chess Events
Saint Louis Rapid & Blitz was awesome as much for the return of Kasparov as it was for presenting chess tournament action!
During the final Rd. Shahade announced online viewership crossed over 1 million for that Rd.! To put that into perspective, Hockey Night In Canada on CBC has about 1.75 million viewers.
I watched Saint Louis Rapid & Blitz free on Chess 24(?) ... live NHL is only free in a public spaces ie. a sports bar ...but even then. Be interesting to see the numbers of such an action chess event as Saint Louis Rapid & Blitz if it becomes pay-per-view.
...... Be interesting to see the numbers of such an action chess event as Saint Louis Rapid & Blitz if it becomes pay-per-view.
Maybe that's the next opening to be exploited by the Millionaire Chess people..... PPV Chess, every purchase gets a free porno movie! Have to release all that pent-up energy! LOL
Only the rushing is heard...
Onward flies the bird.
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