From: Katsutoshi Seki <sekik <at> TKA <dot> ATT <dot> NE <dot> JP>
Date: 18 jul 2003
Subject: Re: Copyright of game score

Hi, Kazuyuki.

On 2003.07.17, at 23:21, Kazuyuki Iwamoto wrote:

According to the unofficial comment by NSR (Nihon Shogi Renmei),

>  'At present there is no regal bases in insisting copyright in
> scores.Therefore it's quite unwelcome  but we can do nothing legally
> even if
> scores are made public on ML or webpage without (our) permission.

 From this and Pieter's comment, it is clear that NSR admit there is no
copyright
in game scores, and they don't sue people who make scores public through
internet. The discussion about the copyright has come to the conclusion.

Following point is to be discussed separately from the copyright issue,
based on the fact that there is no copyright in  game scores.

>  But if we
> granted it(openly),our financial bases would be threatened,potentially
> could
> crash (pro) Shogi world itself. This is why we want you to refrain from
> posting pro scores.'

This is a typical Japanese way of thinking, where Westerners may find
difficult to understand... Sometimes it works and it is good, but in this
case I think NSR should make a clear statement in public.

Actually there is nothing to worry about. People will buy newspapers
where
the most recently played match is annotated, people will access website
where
the on-going match is in play, people will buy books written about match,
and people will buy pro scores database if it is published. As discussed
previously, there ARE copyright in the comments, and also in collection
of
game scores. Suppose that NSR publishes CD-ROM which contains database
of pro scores. People can search desired match in many ways. People will
buy it. People cannot copy the database itself, because the database is
copyrighted, while copying individual scores will be permitted.

To summarize, the financial bases of NSR will not be threatened if they
will
do their business appropriately.

Instead of making statement like "we want you to refrain from posting pro
scores," NSR can ask people not to publish pro scores BEFORE it is
published on the media of the sponsor, for example Mainichi newspaper
for the Meijin tournament. If they openly make such suggestion on their
website, I think most gentle Japanese people will follow.

In this way, not only Japanese and international shogi fans will be
happy,
as I said in my first post, but also NSR will be happy, and their
sponsors
will also be happy. After all, promotion of shogi is the purpose of NSR,
and NSR cannot be happy without many shogi fans.

# English name of NSR is JSA (Japan Shogi Association), not JSF,
according
# to their website.

Sincerely,

   Katsutoshi Seki