Fat Fritz is not the Only Ripoff and now ChessBase is Getting Sued

@OzzieTezz
We understand that completely, we're just saying that even ignoring the legal issues what's happening is still fundamentally wrong. What chessbase and others are trying to do by selling free engines for $50 or more is still pathetic whether they were following the license agreement or not.

Many "scams" similar to this are perfectly legal, I and others are just saying watch out for this garbage.

I'm just saying even ignoring the Fat Fritz fiasco and the legal issues all paid engines are just dumb at this point. I don't want someone to be like "well instead of Fat Fritz I'll go buy Komodo instead" when they can get stockfish for free.

@h2b2

I understand your point. I just think if someone finds value in a paid engine that's worse than a free one they're being misled or just confused. Which is why I make posts like the one above to raise awareness on why paid engines are useless and why people should just avoid them if they're smart.

This does not look good for chessbase

@hendrixmaine having reread the official words from stockfish one issue stockfish had was chessbase didn't meet the requirements of letting buyers know it was based on GPL stockfish and what their rights were. Maybe they wouldn't have sold as many copies if some buyers read it's based on stockfish and they new they could get it for free. But I do know some buyers new in advance what it was and were happy to buy it anyway. I get your point, anyway.

It's seriously outrageous. I mean, at leat they could have picked a better name than Fat Fritz. And its clearly BAD in the first place that they were trying to replicate this. By the way, was the recent-most update, Stockfish 13 or 14? does anyone know? Also, like everyone else, soo soo soo grateful for Lichess to spread this news.

@h2b2

I agree. The fundamental legal issue is that chessbase wasn't being transparent in accordance with the license and your statement sums up why this crossed over the legal line and why that law exists.

@Blazer456

I agree. I hope that this controversy remains separate from chessbase employees not involved in this and branches like chessbase India and the sagar shah crew though as they seem like great folks who don't deserve to get any flak from this.

I totally agree with you @hendrixmaine

@hendrixmaine
Of course you dont just get an engine when you pay those prices you get the fritz interface with it which is an excellent program.

It has to be said that chessbase have been making high quality software for decades and this slip shouldn't put what they have achieved in terms of the vast selection of their DVD's and how they have become THE number one chess software company in the world bar none...chessbase the program itself is out on its own in just sheer quality and features, although I do find the foreign accents a bit annoying in their masterclass series being a UK native born english speaker....

This isn't the first controversy over Houdini. Very early in its lifetime, Houdini was accused by the creators of IPPOLIT family of engines for stealing parts of their codes as well. It somehow survived all that, probably because no one really cared about what an anonymous group of chess engines enthusiasts said. To my knowledge, they never sued Robert Houdart. But, as time has shown numerous times, justice will always find its way in the end. It did so with Rybka (at the time the strongest engine available), and it will do the same with Houdini.