[computer-go] How to prevent Copyright violations?

[Heikki Levanto]

On Tue, Sep 19, 2006 at 10:44:42PM +0200, Chrilly wrote:
> I got a mail from Fritz Reul, the programmer of the strong chess programm 
> Loop. Loop is sold over the internet, has a copyright protection, but Fritz 
> detected, that one can download the programm from
> 
> http://www.4shared.com/file/3725942/(omitted)
> 
> Has anyone from the professionals in the group experience with this 
> question?. How can one prevent technically and legally such copyrights 
> violations.

I am not a professional, not in chess or go programming at least.
Professional programmer yes, but working for an open source company, so
take all this with a grain of salt...


Legally, it is easy: Sue anyone who puts your copyrighted work up for
download. Not practical, as you would have to hire lawyers in various
different countries, and probably would not get anything out of it.

Technically, it is next to impossible. Many ways have been tried, and
most, if not all, have been broken, and/or have added much hazzle to
the legal buyers of the software.

Economically, I am not sure if it pays off to try to "protect" your
code. Some illegal downloads may be counted as lost sales, but probably
many of those who download would never buy in the first place. Some will
buy afterwards, if the stuff is good enough. 

In practice, I recommend not to worry too much about copying. Consider
pirated copies as free advertising. Offer something extra for the
regular users who have paid for their stuff. For example, access to
mailing lists, web forums, extra features, and so on.

Most of all, don't loose sleep over copying. You can't stop it anyway,
and the effort you put in trying, could be better used in producing
something valuable.

Just my two cents

    - Heikki


-- 
Heikki Levanto   "In Murphy We Turst"     heikki (at) lsd (dot) dk