On 04 Mar 2004, David Richerby said:

I don't think that's a very good reference as chess obviously isn't
an athletic sport.

rec.games.go has been discussing this recently. Some of the links that
came out of that discussion we

http://www.bcmchess.co.uk/britbase/about.htm: British Chess Magazine:
``Legally the actual moves of any game as played are considered to
be in the public domain and not subject to any copyright laws.''

http://senseis.xmp.net/?KifuCopyrightDiscussion:
``Games cannot be subject to copyright; being a product of conflict
(however we like to think of Go as an amicable conversation, it's
at least a heated debate), neither player can lay claim to ownership;
neither can it be claimed to be jointly owned, since the sides worked
at cross purposes and not with the intent of creating the end product.''

http://www.copyright.gov/help/faq/faq-general.html:
``Copyright does not protect facts, ideas, systems, or methods of
operation, although it may protect the way these things are expressed.''

I think an interpretation as ``The actual moves of a game are in the
public domain; once someone has added value such as commentary to a
game, though, the new product can be considered copyrighted'' is sane.

- Chris.
--
Chris Ball http://www.mrao.cam.ac.uk/~cjb/
Inference Group: http://www.inference.phy.cam.ac.uk/is/