You know there's a World Championship match about to start when stories of people getting sued over the coverage start to hit the press. As usual it seems to be about whether chess moves are 'information' and can be relayed freely, or 'content' where the rights to rebroadcast them are held by a single entity (Note: IANAL). My own opinion is that the moves are information, but other content, such as video coverage etc are indeed content.
One argument I feel does not hold water btw is comparing a chess game to a cricket match or football game (in part because it is moves that are important, not how they are played). Indeed look no further than cricinfo for an example of how information can be distributed via the internet (live updates of scores, and even text commentary). Obviously it does not broadcast live coverage of the game (in the traditional sense of radio or TV), but it has not been prevented from providing a huge amount of information via the web.
The whole things kicks of in a couple of days from New York. The rounds start at a slightly inconvenient time for Australia (5am) but it may mean that you can watch the real action over breakfast. There are a number of options to watching the match, but the best starting point is probably Ian Roger's "The couch potatos guide to the World Chess Championship"
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2 comments:
6am Sydney I think.
From the game theoretic standpoint, it's similarly not important *how* things are played in cricket or football either, only the score is what matters in the end. What is different is that many viewers typically care about the "how" (content beyond just information you could call it), while in chess not so many do. But maybe the revolutionary Agon 360 degree virtual reality will change all that!
Incidentally, did you read the FIDE Minutes? It seems that there's a turf war (from CONS) regarding whether the ACC Guidelines should just be removed for now.
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