Illustrative board positions

[gnos]

In addition to linking pro games from the joseki, it should also be possible to link hypothetical board positions from the joseki showing how the joseki can affect the whole board situation.

[mafutrct]

While I find this idea interesting, I would rather not have that. The basic problem I'm afraid of is that the illustrative positions require quite some time to create but are very diffcult to find - most users would miss them. Similar problem as wikipedia is facing - too many data to keep up with.

Maybe we can mark a moves as "featured", i.e. it leads to an illustrative position that is an interesting read. This way, more users can find and appreciate the illustrated board.

[anpanna]

How about copyright issues? Linking whole pro games as examples may be a problem, because they become publically available this way ... if I remember right, this is why e.g. gobase.org had to create access restrictions to become a "private club". This shouldn't be a problem if just a position is given and not a complete game. So, illustrative positions may actually be a better way to go than illustrative games.

[Tommie]

Copyright issues are only ficticious problems as professional games are published and thus already in the public domain.
The representation of some information, say the swung lettertype "Coca Cola" can be trademarked (exclusive right to sell and brand sweet, caramellized bubbling softdrinks),
but in fact the games are not (yet) independently whether they could be or not.

No one can forbid you to paint 'your' own Piet Mondrian,
play your own Joseki (wether it was played by Dosaku centuries ago or yesterday by another prof),
or replay the whole game which was sponsored by, e.g. a noodle company, which finances the game fees via their products, hence most consumers.
(I divert here) At this moment there are 60.000+ high quality games (i.e. high-dan to professional) in the public domain,
hence copyright-free.

The representation is very different as well
(B1 = S16, W2= D4 is very different from a software which enables you to proceed in a game, adding your own commentaries,
thus creating something copyrightable).

Furthermore is copyright not an infinite exclusive right.

Last but not least is the reason w.r.t. J.v.d.Steen's GoBase.org wrong (to my knowledge),
it was less a restriction of access than a way to finance server costs.
If we were copyright fundamentals, we would tackle & boycott Google books, the biggest copyright infringement in this millenium (up to now).

Hence, we - resp. A.Miller - are free to chose the best possible representation of Joseki related information.