Be Advised !! ACF attitude towards copyrights

[Alan Millhone]

The recent and ongoing diatribe on the forum needs to STOP effective immediately !!

I will not single out anyone ---------- If you do not like the forum then my suggestion is to have me delete your name and leave.

The forum has a listing of topics concerning Checkers/Draughts and is for the benefit of the forum members. Mr. Alex posts about one of his games,etc. and then another person does their best to tear down anything constructive.

Those of you (and you know who you are) who have been abusing the forum are on notice to cease your antics. If you feel you need to make one last harmful post , go ahead and then you will be deleted.

Let us all get back to the discussion of the game and anything positive concerning the game.

This will be my final admonition.

Also, the ACF does not condone nor allow the offering of contraband materials and violations of copyright laws. One such posting will be eliminated tonight and others like it will not be tolerated by the ACF.

Sincerely:
Alan Millhone, President
American Checker Federation

[Alan Millhone]

Hello Josh:

To put it simply -------- Don't post any more book downloads on this forum. You should create your own web site and do as you like . As ACF President I have to do my best to look out for the best interest of the ACF.

Sincerely:
Alan Millhone, President
American Checker Federation

[Ingo_Zachos]

Dear Josh,

Alan is right and the simple answer if the ACF or the authors hold a copyright is yes.
They produced a literary work, and that is under copyright law. No doubt.
Any reproducing without permission is illegal.
You can not make a pdf out of the ACF Bulletins, the 2005 annotated games by Nicheal Holmes, the Prague 2005 games by Jim Loy etc.

The fact that the games r under no copyright does not mean that these books are under no copyright.
Also plz try to see things from a different angle:
My friend Tommy Canning had already worked on his compilation in 2005 when I met him in Prague.
I had the Chance to look at some of his findings in the Inferno, and I remember that he was looking at the 12 new openings all day, altough he played in a GAYP event, and so had no chance to use it as preparation.
Compared to the hours he spent writing and analyzing, the price is quite moderate.
Also Jim Loy derserves more credit that you seem to give him.
Without him many events like the NYT 2005 would be forgotten.
Maybe even no-one would take the time to publish the recorded games.
I think it is only fair to honour that service by a small contribution.
All chess book r much more expensive, and some of them were also produced by using Fritz and Chessbase, and nothing else.
Jim is a steady, busy and reliabale worker. And producing bulletins and book in ashort time is a quality, though you don't understand that.
Just try to write a book about an event with say, 50 games, and you see how long it takes.
Jim uses Checkerboard and his own database which is maybe the biggest in the world today, but what's wrong with that?
It allows him to work quickly and efficently, and I have to say he has my deepest respect.
I am still working on the German Open 2007 games and on German Translations of Pask's books and German Versions of the German Open 2004 and 2005 bulletins.
I know it takes time, and that Jim performed miracles.

What you can do is reproduce copyright free books like those which r too old to be under amny copyright.
The 1905 IM or 1927 IM or the 1924 or 1922 US nationals come into mind.
I think, Bob Newell has a project like that and if you help him, that would be excellent.
You could even add your own comments to the old ones and thus producing a new book that is authored by you.
Boland's Border Classics look like a good start!

Don't do something illegal, Josh, and stop violating copyright laws plz.
What you could do is buy the bulltins and use ony the ga,es, not the annotations to produce, for instance an open archive like this two for chess:
http://v3.icofy.net/index.php/home?lang=en
http://scid.sourceforge.net/download.html

But once you start copying whole books that contain anootations, may they be spares or not, you commited a crime.

Another advice to you:
Unless u r a collector, there is no need to buy a book at once.
First work through the books you alreday have and try to summarizen the facts you need for your play in a seperate manuscript.
Maybe you can even publish that manuscriopt one day, who knows.
But don't expect much gain from buying books like crazy, unless u collect them.

Greetinx from sunny old Europe,

Ingo Zachos

[Alan Millhone]

Hello Josh:

Ingo makes a lot of sense in his posting. You do as you wish, but not on the forum. No need for legal saber rattling,etc. as it will be a moot point .

Sincerely:
Alan Millhone, President
American Checker Federation

[jimloy]

Checker games are not copyrightable. Annotations are copyrighted, and may be quoted but not reproduced in full, except for your own use, or with permission from the copyright holder. The ACFB is copyrighted by the ACF, and may not be copied to any great extent, but there are parts that the ACF would probably encourage you to copy, like the numbered board or marketplace pages or tournament announcements. I think we encourage people to photocopy and sell (nobody makes a profit on this kind of transaction) old ACFBs which you can no longer get from the ACF.

Feel free to type the games from any of my books, and strip the annotations off. But it may be easier to get the pdn (pgn) files from me, except for my Lowder book, which came from many pdn files, and will be difficult to re-collect into one pdn file.

[MostFamousDane]

Feel free to type the games from any of my books, and strip the annotations off. But it may be easier to get the pdn (pgn) files from me, except for my Lowder book, which came from many pdn files, and will be difficult to re-collect into one pdn file.

In windows open a command prompt, type this: copy *.pdn complete.pdn

[MostFamousDane]

Ok I was told that wasn't clear enough

If you want to combine all pdn files in a directory into one big file - here is what you do (in windows vista).

1. Open a command prompt by clicking the start button - click all programs - click accessories - click command promt. A black window opens in which you can type.

2. Navigate to the directory with the files are - lets say you have them placed at "c:\checkers files" - type "cd c:\checker files"

3. Type "copy *.pdn combined.pdn"

After you have done this all the pdn files will have been merged into on big file.

Alternatively for the slightly computer literate you can cut and paste "copy *.pdn combined.pdn" (without the ") into a file and save the file in the directory with your pdns - call the file combine.cmd and just double click the file when you want to combine the files.

Hope that was (more) clear

[jimloy]

Thank you. That was clear both times. About half of the games in these files are pdn, the others are just text. And most of them are annotated, at least briefly. And most of them were rejected and are not in the book.

[Alex_Moiseyev]

Mr. Alex posts about one of his games,etc.

I am not alone indeed, but certainly posted more games here than anyone else. Michael Holmes and Shane McCosker also contributed to "Game" Section on this frum.

But this miserable number of posted games is far below number of promotional posts on this forum. I am still thinking what will be the best amount for "promotional fee" - 10 cents per line or 20.

Anyway, many interesting games were played in Springfield. Jim Loy sent me recently full complete PDN file from Master Division and is processing now Majors and Minors.

I already started selecting games - alot of fun and enjoyment.

You can order it from ACF Store when it will be ready. Futhermore - all selected games will be fully annotated later as it was done in 2006.

Regards, Alex

[Alan Millhone]

Hello Mr. Alex:


It is an honor to have our 3-Move World Champion selecting and annotating the 'select' games from recent RLF Springfield Nationals.

I am confident your comments will be instructive and colorful for all classes of players.

Sincerely:
Alan Millhone, President
American Checker Federation

" An Average Checker/Draughts Student "

[Alex_Moiseyev]

I am confident your comments will be instructive and colorful for all classes of players.

OK

[neilwenberg]

Alex, make sure you include some of my "star games" in the Minor Division for Springfield!!

[Patrick Parker]

:--D