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I have said this many times as precedence has been set in the past in various courts. One simply cannot copyright chess moves. Today, the Russian Commercial Court agreed with this and tossed the lawsuit by AGON against Chess24 over the same issue.

AGON decided to forbid any individual or server to broadcast moves of their events (World Championships, Candidates Tournament, etc.). A number of servers disagreed and did it anyway. AGON then sued for 20,000,000 RUB.  The lawsuit was tossed. This is good news for the chess community.

I think AGON would have a strong case protecting the video rights. But I personally believe that it is a stretch to protect the moves. In a free market society, one does not win by unfair monopoly. One only wins by offering better products/services/values, etc.

I would like to congratulate Chess24 and all other servers which stood up for what they believed in. This is good news for everyone in the chess community!

 

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Source: https://chess24.com

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