Stockfish vs. ChessBase for GPLv3 violation: court hearing soon (opens in new tab)

(stockfishchess.org)

196 pointsacifani3y ago20 comments

20 comments

I'm happy that after years of nonchalant abuse of GPL by ChessBase, Stockfish authors have finally taken the matter to the courts. I wish the damages claimed were more.

zelphirkalt3y ago

Lets just hope they actually win (and judges actually understand the matter or people, who do advise), otherwise this is a disaster.

dantondwa3y ago

It’s not a disaster, because in Germany there is Roman law, as opposed to America’s common law. It’s different and it makes a sentence something much less disastrous.

1 more reply

nceqs33y ago

German courts don't have the best reputation when it comes to technical subject matter.

2 more replies

ajnin3y ago

It's going to be interesting because it's in Germany, which is in Europe. There's been a recent court case in France that ruled that copyright claims based on the GPL were invalid because it is a contract, and you can't claim both copyright and a contract on something, so it should be dealt with in civil contract court. (Or in other words, granting a license like the GPL invalidates all copyright claims you might have in the future!)

The article is quite light on details, I wonder on what exact grounds they filed their claim.

jrochkind13y ago

> you can't claim both copyright and a contract on something,

That makes no sense to me. Licensing copyrighted work is pretty standard, and it must be in France too? The GPL is a license, which is indeed a contract. But surely people license (enter into a contract between copyright holder and user which grants certain allowed uses) copyrighted work in France routinely?

londons_explore3y ago

I think the distinction is that if the parties involved don't have a contract between them, copyright law applies.

But if there is a contract in place, then copyright law no longer applies, and you instead have to resolve any disputes as if they were violations of a contract.

The difficulty being that the GPL allows anyone to enter into a contract without even consent of the other party, and the contract law courts may not see that as a valid contract.

1 more reply

Vespasian3y ago

This is a civil case if I am not mistaken. Earlier cases in Germany where decided in favour of the obligations of the GPL.

sva_3y ago

I think the case you're thinking of was in France:

https://thehftguy.com/2020/09/15/french-judge-rules-gpl-lice...

GauntletWizard3y ago

I can't even imagine what that means. How do stock photos work in France?

yellow_lead3y ago

So both cases are in Europe?

omega33y ago

How were they able to acquire the source code? Is it based on this reporting? https://groups.google.com/g/fishcooking/c/DygaIdBvJm0/m/cjtM...

Even the makefile had a reference to stockfish.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse

20 comments

yewenjie3y ago

I'm happy that after years of nonchalant abuse of GPL by ChessBase, Stockfish authors have finally taken the matter to the courts. I wish the damages claimed were more.

zelphirkalt3y ago

Lets just hope they actually win (and judges actually understand the matter or people, who do advise), otherwise this is a disaster.

dantondwa3y ago

It’s not a disaster, because in Germany there is Roman law, as opposed to America’s common law. It’s different and it makes a sentence something much less disastrous.

1 more reply

nceqs33y ago

German courts don't have the best reputation when it comes to technical subject matter.

2 more replies

ajnin3y ago

The article is quite light on details, I wonder on what exact grounds they filed their claim.

jrochkind13y ago

> you can't claim both copyright and a contract on something,

londons_explore3y ago

I think the distinction is that if the parties involved don't have a contract between them, copyright law applies.

But if there is a contract in place, then copyright law no longer applies, and you instead have to resolve any disputes as if they were violations of a contract.

The difficulty being that the GPL allows anyone to enter into a contract without even consent of the other party, and the contract law courts may not see that as a valid contract.

1 more reply

Vespasian3y ago

This is a civil case if I am not mistaken. Earlier cases in Germany where decided in favour of the obligations of the GPL.

sva_3y ago

I think the case you're thinking of was in France:

https://thehftguy.com/2020/09/15/french-judge-rules-gpl-lice...

GauntletWizard3y ago

I can't even imagine what that means. How do stock photos work in France?

yellow_lead3y ago

So both cases are in Europe?

omega33y ago

How were they able to acquire the source code? Is it based on this reporting? https://groups.google.com/g/fishcooking/c/DygaIdBvJm0/m/cjtM...

Even the makefile had a reference to stockfish.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse