Author: Dann Corbit
Date: 11:40:53 02/15/04
Go up one level in this thread
On February 15, 2004 at 14:35:09, Jaime Benito de Valle Ruiz wrote: >On February 15, 2004 at 14:26:00, Dann Corbit wrote: > >>On February 15, 2004 at 14:21:06, Jaime Benito de Valle Ruiz wrote: >> >>>On February 15, 2004 at 14:12:05, Dann Corbit wrote: >>> >>>>On February 15, 2004 at 14:08:24, Jaime Benito de Valle Ruiz wrote: >>>> >>>>>Does that mean that we can be sued for using ideas such as using bitboards... or >>>>>a 64 bytes array to represent the board? >>>> >>>>You can be sued if you are innocent. Software is an extrememly complex matter >>>>and I doubt if 1% of judges or juries would be able to make a competent >>>>decision. Therefore the quality of the legal team will probably determine the >>>>outcome. >>>> >>>>>The only two pieces of code that I have ever copied are: >>>>> >>>>> 1) A few lines to read the input, because I didn't know how to do this. >>>>> 2) A branchless assembly version of a 64-bit BSR/BSF for 32-bit processors. >>>>> >>>>>The implementation (but not the original ideas) of typical chess engine search / >>>>>evaluation functions are mine... because I don't like reading other people's >>>>>code. Do you advice to start sending lots of mails to lots of people asking for >>>>>the permission to use their ideas if I ever decide to send my program to a >>>>>tournament (or make it commercial)? >>>> >>>>Yes. It is not a legal necessity, but I think it is a good idea. Probably, we >>>>don't write more than one new routine a day. That's not a lot of emails. >>>> >>>>>All this sounds a bit extreme to me. >>>>> >>>>>Regards, >>>>> >>>>> Jaime >>>> >>>>Like any idea, it has both a positive and negative aspect. >>> >>>The only problem is: How do I know who should I write for every thing that I do? >> >>Write to the person where you got the idea. If it is from a book or a paper, >>then to the book or paper author. If is is from code, then to the one who wrote >>the code. If you make it up yourself, you can still be in violation (especially >>for a patent). Commercial software systems will do a patent search to see if >>they violate any patent ideas. >> >>For instance, certain types of bitmap indexes cannot be used -- even if you make >>the idea up by yourself because there are several patents on bitmapped indexes. >>For that reason, I never use bitmapped indexes. >> >>>I know who should I ask for permission if I ever implement the tablebases (and I >>>will ask), but I'm not sure about the rest of the stuff. >>>Thanks for the advice in any case. >> >>I think that a minimal courtesy that should always be extended is to at least >>cite the sources from which the information came. > >Who owns the patent for bitboards? And what bitmapped indexes are patented? I am a database guy, who writes SQL engines. The bitmapped indexes I am talking about are [for instance] these: http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&u=/netahtml/search-adv.htm&r=36&f=G&l=50&d=PTXT&p=1&p=1&S1=(((bitmapped+OR+bitmap)+AND+index)+AND+database)&OS=+(bitmapped+OR+bitmap)+AND+index+AND+database&RS=(((bitmapped+OR+bitmap)+AND+index)+AND+database) >I think that using bits to represent squares is not exactly an original idea. I >started programming in assembler when I was 14 y.o., and to me it seems an >obvious choice to use 64 bytes registers for a 64 squares board. Rotated >bitboards is another story, of course, but I don't use them anyway. > >Cite the sources and thank all the people who have pubished and helped with >ideas goes without saying, but I doubt I can remember where did I get every >single of these ideas in the first place. Is there any page with this >information anywhere? No single place to find it, I am afraid. But it is not too late to start the practice now.
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