Bogus Copyright Claims by Everyman Chess
Everyman Chess, a rival chess book publisher, has written letters to virtually every distributor of chess books in the world claiming that Ishi Press is violating their copyrights to books published by Pergamon Press. As a result, many chess book distributors have stopped ordering books from Ishi Press. However, Everyman Chess has never written directly to me. The obvious reason is that there is no legal basis to their claims.
Gloucester Publishers Limited (Everyman Chess) does not own the copyright to any books nor does Ishi Press own the copyright to any books. Copyrights are owned by authors, not by publishers. That is the reason that all of my books list the author as the owner of the copyright.
Pergamon Press filed for bankruptcy after the owner Robert Maxwell was found dead in 1991, his body floating in the Atlantic Ocean. This was a famous case widely reported in the news. Thereafter Pergamon Press filed for bankruptcy in 1992. Only the bankruptcy courts could determine who if anybody owns the rights to the books published by Pergamon Press. The courts have made no such determination. Under British corporate law, once a corporation fails to pay its annual fees it ceases to exist, unlike in America where a corporation can always be revived merely by paying its delinquent back taxes.
I have had discussions on this particular subject with officials of British chess and FIDE and with authors of books published by Pergamon Press. They are confident that nobody other than the authors own the rights to any chess books published by Pergamon Press.
Please note that Everyman Chess do not have a good moral claim either. Everyman has never published the books they cite. They are claiming that they have the right to stop grandmasters from going anywhere to have their books published. The books they are referring to had been out of print for more than 25 years before Ishi Press reprinted them. Such a claim would definitely not be allowed under US law and I doubt it would be recognized under British law either. In addition, almost all of the books cited in their letter were originally published in the Soviet Union. Soviet copyrights are not recognized in the USA as they did not recognize ours.
All of the listed books are now registered as copyrighted by me with the US Copyright Office in Washington DC. You can look this up at copyright.gov/records/
These USA copyrights are also effective in the UK. If Everyman Chess wishes to dispute my copyright on these books they should complain to the copyright office either in the USA or the UK. Perhaps they have already done this to no avail.
Please note that Everyman Chess has even spelled the name of Pergamon wrong, surprising since they claim the ownership of all Pergamon books.
Several authors of chess books have come to me expressing frustration at the fact their books have gone out of print due to the bankruptcy of Pergamon. Therefore, I have agreed to reprint their books. As noted above, Everyman Chess has never published these books.
All of the above listed books were first published in the Soviet Union. The United States does not recognize any Soviet copyrights because they did not recognize ours. The Soviet Union was a pirate haven for illegally reprinting books published in the USA. Copyright law goes to the form of original publication. Thus if a book was first published in the Soviet Union and then reprinted in another form in another country it is not copyrightable.
This point is explained in a recent US federal court decision involving the works of Sherlock Holmes. knowledgebase.findlaw.com/kb/201 … 17448.html The full decision, which I have studied, explains that for example if a book is published in the Soviet Union in Russian in Algebraic notation and then is reprinted in the USA in English in Descriptive notation, the USA publication is a “derivative work”, not an original work.
If Everyman chess seriously wants to claim the rights to all these books, then they should send the authors some money. I understand that none of these authors have received any money from Everyman Chess.
Regarding the claim that Everyman Chess owns the art work to some of these books, the books clearly state that the art work has been provided by the British Museum. These are works of art hundreds of years old and were not created by Everyman Chess. They are clearly in the public domain. Regarding the Everyman claim to have a copyright on the “typeface”, under copyright law, there is no such thing as copyright on typeface, color or font. There are only four types of things that are copyrightable. They are Text, Art, Photographs and Sound Recordings. Design and ideas are not copyrightable.
Everyman chess claims they bought Pergamon Press in 1995. However, Robert Maxwell, the owner of Pergamon Press, died in 1991. Pergamon Press filed for bankruptcy in 1992. Wikipedia says, “In 1992 academic publishing giant Elsevier bought most of the company from Maxwell. The imprint “Pergamon Press” continues to be used to identify journals now published by Elsevier.” This is funny since Maxwell died in 1991, one year earlier.
Finally, Everyman Chess lacks moral authority for their claims. As they have published none of these books, they have deprived the chess playing public of the opportunity to read these works. They have deprived the authors if still living of the public recognition and appreciation for their works. Everyman Chess is circulating their letter just to attack a competitor.
A violation of copyright law is a federal crime. If Everyman Chess could prove that I am violating their copyright, they could have me arrested. Obviously, they cannot prove this as they have not done this.
Everyman Chess first circulated their letter in February 2013, nearly one year ago. I decided to ignore it but after so many book distributors have reported that they are no longer ordering Ishi Press books because of the complaints by Everyman Chess, I have decided to write this response.
I hope that in view of these facts you will start carrying Ishi Press books again.
Sam Sloan
----Original Message-----
From: Marcus, Lesley [mailto:lesley.marcus@globepequot.com]
Sent: Monday, February 18, 2013 8:55 AM
To: Marcus, Lesley
Subject: Everyman Chess Important Information!
Importance: High
Dear Valued Everyman Chess Customer,
Please see the important note below from Everyman Chess.
Dear Chess Book Buyer,
It has recently come to our attention that Ishi Press are infringing the copyright of Gloucester Publishers Limited (Everyman Chess) by selling a number of titles originally published by Pergammon Chess and Cadogan Chess.
Pergammon Chess was acquired by Cadogan Books Plc, who subsequently changed their imprint name from Cadogan Chess to Everyman Chess in 1995. Everyman Chess is now the wholly owned imprint of Gloucester Publishers Limited.
The titles in question, with Ishi Press ISBNs are:
The Games of Tigran Petrosian, Volume 1 - 9784871874236
The Games of Tigran Petrosian, Volume 2 - 9784871874243
Comprehensive Chess Endings, Volume 1 - 9784871875035
Comprehensive Chess Endings, Volume 2 - 9784871875042
Comprehensive Chess Endings, Volume 3 - 9784871875059
Comprehensive Chess Endings, Volume 4 - 9784871875066
Comprehensive Chess Endings, Volume 5 - 9784871875073
The Art of Defence in Chess - 9784871875196
The Games of Tigran Petrosian, Volumes 1 & 2 , and Comprehensive Chess Endings, Volumes 1-5, by Yuri Averbach, although currently out of print in the Everyman Chess editions, are in bound by the terms of the original contract with Pergammon. All cover design and typeface remain the copyright of Everyman Chess.
These books have been reprinted by Ishi Press without our permission. We would ask you to cease selling these books and remove them from your catalogue
Your sincerely
Dan Addelman
Director, Everyman Chess