From: "Daniel M. Toebbens" <toebbens <at> HMI <dot> DE>
Date: 16 jul 2003
Subject: Re: Copyright of game score

On Wed, 16 Jul 2003, Larry Kaufman wrote:
> >
> > For shogi scores,I believe amatuers's scores are generary not copyrighted.
> > But those of pro's are not.  Those scores are considerd to be a propaty of
> > JSF and its sponsores such as major newpapers who publish the scores.If
> > you
> > think all shogi scores ARE NOT copyrighted, try publishing pro's sores for
> > free or at a cost. I 'm sure you will get sued by JSF.
> >
>      Some people have been publishing Pro game scores right here on this
> list!  Have any of you been sued or even asked not to do this?
>
>      I guess that you mean "published in Japan".  I think this claim to
> copyright of Pro game scores would not be recognized anywhere else.


I think that a collection of many game scores could fall under the
copyright protection for compilations and databases. That would not
protect the individual game score, though.

I assume, that this is a situation which also applies to chess gamescores
in most western countries. It reminds me of the telefone book case we had
in Germany a few years ago. A company started to sell database programs
for names, adresses and phone numbers. Telekom sued, since all the
information was copied from their phone books. They won, and when the
company resorted to having the phone books re-typed by a few thousand
chinese workers, this was also found to be illegal.


For a look into Japanese Copyright Law:
http://www.cric.or.jp/cric_e/clj/clj.html


Daniel Toebbens