Q: Is it legal to redistribute the games of Chessbase's Database? Or does Chessbase "own" the games?

Chessbase provides a chess database for personal use for (a lot of) money. My understanding is, that they are selling the data*base* and not the data itself (i.e. their file format/structure of the database) and the redistribution of that would be illegal under copyright laws. But the games and data themselves, including players' names, ratings, places, moves, etc. cannot possibly belong to the company itself, right? So if one were to publish the same games (in a different file format, e.g. a normal .pgn which is just a text file), removing all proprietary information, (e.g. some annotations in games could have been done by Chessbase, and it is likely they "own" said annotations), then would that be legal under copyright laws?

2 Lawyer Answers
Sarah Teresa Haddad
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A: Some parts of games are subject to copyright protection. This includes the game's artistic elements, like the music, art, and dialog, and the computer program that runs the game. As such, reproduction of these elements may be considered copyright infringement, depending on the purpose and context you're seeking to reproduce them, if they are being reproduced for a foreseeable purpose of Chessbase. The idea for the game, its name, and the method of play are not protected by copyright.

James L. Arrasmith
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A: Your understanding of the distinction between database structure and game data is quite astute. Chess games themselves, being factual sequences of moves played in tournaments, cannot be copyrighted - much like how sports scores or historical events cannot be owned by anyone.

The components that Chessbase can claim copyright protection for include their database structure, interface, annotations, analysis, and any original commentary they've added to the games. This also extends to their proprietary file formats and how the data is organized within their system.

You would be within your legal rights to extract the raw game data (moves, players, dates, venues) and share it in PGN format, provided you remove any Chessbase-created annotations or analysis. This is similar to how baseball statistics or football scores can be freely shared, even if they were initially accessed through a paid service. However, you should independently verify these moves from tournament records or other public sources to ensure accuracy.

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