[computer-go] How to prevent Copyright violations?

[Eric Boesch]

I agree with Heikki, but what one can do that is fairly easy is to use the 
"report abuse" link at

http://www.4shared.com/contact.jsp

Most file sharing sites have such abuse links, although I cannot comment on 
how effective they are -- especially not the one above, since I never even 
heard of 4shared.com before. Even if the site owners want to prevent 
copyright violations by their users, the owners may lack the resources to 
respond promptly to complaints. And once the file is removed, someone else 
could just put it up again; even if the site owners were to use a checksum 
blacklist so that the same copyright-violating file is never uploaded again, 
such things are trivial to defeat (recompress the file a slightly different 
way or with an extra dummy file, for example).

Heikki Levanto <heikki at lsd.dk> wrote:
>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
>
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