There's Legal Intrigue at the World Chess Match

Does information really want to be free? That's the question hanging over the world chess championship match being contested this month in New York City. On the board is an exciting battle between Magnus Carlsen of Norway and his challenger, Sergei Karjakin, currently tied at one and a half points each. Off the board is a dreary but important legal battle over who gets to transmit the moves to fans around the globe. Anyone interested in technology and intellectual property should care about the outcome.

Asked to imagine a chess game between two grandmasters, most of us would picture an atmosphere of austere cerebral conflict, each sitting like a stone, chin in hand, neurons firing furiously as they calculate move and countermove. And to some extent that’s what happens. But over years, a nagging question has gone unanswered: Who exactly owns the masterpiece the contestants are creating on the board?