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New Paper on Opening Replies

Posted By: Albert Steg
Date: Friday, 3 July 2015, at 12:50 p.m.

In Response To: New Paper on Opening Replies (Stick)

I don't believe that copyright laws would prohibit the quotation of ideas (positions, plays, concepts, 'rules') for the purpose of discussion, analysis, argument. Usually the question of 'fair use' hinges on proportion -- what % of the original text is embedded in the new work? What % of the new work is merely quoted text? For instance, it would be infringement to just re-publish Joe Dwek's book in toto with rollout results charted on each page -- but Jeremy's 'Revisited' book, analyzing select positions from several earlier works shown to be problematic harvests a much smaller % of each book and adds substantial argumentation, so it okay. The point is that people need to be able to quote ideas in order to discuss / refute / champion them -- within reason.

I think your joint copyright notice serves mostly to clarify the joint ownership relationship between you and Gammon Village. Since 1978, these sort of 'notices' aren't required for establishing copyright. Everything is copyright by default as soon as you fix your expressions in a concrete medium.

If tournament backgammon matches are 'public events' then transcriptions of them are probably not the property of the players or transcribers, however much effort it took to transcribe them -- one comparison would be phonebooks, where the 'sweat of the brow' devoted to creating the 'text' was deemed insufficient to make the listings copyrighted. (Digital files [particular instantiations] of transcriptions may be protected under the Digital Millennium Act, maybe?) MLB has managed to establish that baseball games are akin to a theater performance -- hence the "no descriptions allowed" warning when you get into the park. I think BG matches could be similar, but the issue is probably better settled by custom and ettiquette than by legalisms.

ALbert

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