Licensing of Tsumegos

[winterwolff]

Hey there,

if I would make a app or website about tsumegos, am I allowed to use the Graded Go Problems-Tsumegos for example? Or do I have to "invent" new ones?

[Javaness2]

If I answer your question, should I be paid a consultancy fee?

Stupid answers aside, there are plenty of tsumego out there. Don't copy any commentary associated with them. Don't copy any structure they are given.

[RobertJasiek]

If you copy very short extracts of copyrighted work, you have to cite properly. If you want to copy significant fractions of any copyrighted work, you a) have advance permission by the copyright owner or b) violate laws when failing to be significantly creative on your own. Single positions without text or creative grouping, collection or structure cannot be copyrighted. Creativity for such is copyrighted if present in a medium. Work more than 70 years old might be without copyright.

A problem can have correct play. Accordingly, different creative work using the same correct analysis cannot copyright the right to explain the correct. However, the explanatory text given or the exact choice of diagram structure and formatting can be copyrighted.

Be creative! Do not just copy! Create your own selection, grouping, structure, comments WITHOUT copying more than very short parts (which also need citation).

For instance, you might create your collection of vital point problems by citing 5 problem positions each from 100 different books and provide your own solution diagrams and comments.

[BlindGroup]

Robert, this might be more of a question for you, but what about approaching the creators of high quality go instructional content to license their content? For basic problems, it may be easy enough for some developers to come up with their own problems. But when I'm working through a book, it would be great to have the problems on my phone so that I could practice what I was studying when I'm on the go -- or even along side the book. Similarly, the joseki apps that exist (at least for iOS) are fairly weak. One that was backed with the authority of a known author and incorporated high quality commentary would be very useful. Has anyone tried this? Obviously, you'd need to have the right marriage of app developer and author, but it seems like it could work at least in principle.