Plagiary problem

[YOSHIKAWA Atsushi <yosikawa@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

A proposal for treatment of a case of plagiarism in a
tournament:

Atsushi Yoshikawa.


I have acted as the chair of the organizing committee of the
FOST Cup tournament for the past 3 years, and some of you on
this mailing list may recognize me.  Due to the differences
of views regarding the alleged plagiarism incident in the
4th FOST Cup, FOST and CGF, which had been the co-organizers
of the tournament till then, are opposing to each other.  As
a result, it became possible that no computer Go tournament
will be held in Japan.  In order to hold a worthy
tournament, I had, in January 1999, called on to Japanese Go
programmers to: "We have been conducting a series of
computer Go tournaments in Japan worthy of international
attention, but now it is facing its extinction.  Let us, the
Go programmers, overcome this crisis by drafting our own
tournament constitution that would include cases like
plagiarism."

The following thirteen programmers have responded to this
call.
 
    Name		Program name
Tomohito Andou
Shoji Hiasa 
Yasuo Hirooka		Kuru Kuru
Takuya Kojima		Deer Stallion I
Yasuo Oishi		Goro
Shin'ichi Sei		Katsunari
Takuo Tabuchi		Takuchan
Masahiro Tanaka		Biwako
Tetsuya Wakamatsu	Twigo
Hiroshi Yamashita	Aya
Takahisa Yoshida	Mutsuki
Hiroto Yoshii		Monkey Jump
Atsushi Yoshikawa	Deer Stallion II

I collaborated with these programmers to draft a
constitution of a tournament. The whole of the constitution
itself will be sent in another mail, because it is too long. 
Here I just show you the part referring to plagiarism in
programs. Please read this, and let me know what you think
of it. Please address your comments to:
	go@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Our views about plagiarism are constrained by the following
conditions: 

(1) We have no fund for investigating a plagiarism case;
(2) We consider this a case serious enough to affect the
computer Go community as a whole;
(3) We have also to protect the alleged plagiarist (No one
is guilty until proven so)
(4) Prompt action is called for so that no misinformation is
circulated;
(5) Participating programmers will be satisfied.

Our proposal may not be the best solution. If you have a
better idea, please let us know. We sincerely wish that a
worthy tournament would be held in Japan again. If you find
our constitution has any merit, we are very glad if you
could adopt it.

----------------------------------------------------------

1. Conditions on participation

(1) Eligibility

a) The participating party can be of any nationality,
gender, or age
b) Any individual or organization can participate, but a
program can be registered only once (no multiple
registration is allowed).
c) The developer of the registered program or the person who
has been endorsed by the developer only can participate;
d) Any fraudulent act, such as duplicating a program
developed by someone else, disqualifies the participant.
e) It is desirable that the software possesses communication
capability.  A program without such can still register, but
the time spent for the operation is counted as part of the
playing time.
f) The participant submits a copy of the registered program
in a sealed envelop on the first day of the tournament. For
the treatment of the submitted program, see 2. Submission of
Copy of Program.
g) A participant, an individual or an organization, whose
registered program has been officially determined in any of
the previous tournaments to have been illegally produced
will be disallowed from this tournament for three years,
starting from the date of the decision. A participant, an
individual or an organization, whose program has been
alleged of a fraud in any of the previous tournaments needs
to present a "statement of defense" to be announced to other
participants.

2. Submission of Copy of Program

In order to prevent illegal programs, such as plagiaristic
ones, from entering the tournament, when a participant is
alleged of any such activity the person is asked to present
a copy of its executable as evidence for investigation. If
the database file exists independently, the copy of the
database file is also to be presented.

a) The participant submits the medium containing the program
on the first day of the tournament.  The program can be
compressed in any particular format. And it can be presented
in any one of 3.5 inch FD, MO, Zip, or other popularly
available media. If it is presented in other less well-known
media, the participant should contact the organizing
committee. The medium is to be put in a postal envelop,
sealed with a sign by the developer of the program to show
it is unbroken.
b) The program is securely stored under the surveillance of
the organizing committee. The program is never used except
in the case of allegation of a fraud.
c) The participant whose program is alleged of a fraud is
contacted by the committee and required to collaborate with
the investigation using the submitted copy of the
program. If the participant's collaboration is not granted,
it would not only strengthen the allegation but may risk the
participant's disqualification in the next tournament.
d) If a program is alleged of a fraud, the submitted copy of
the program is used to confirm if the same game record
exhibited in the tournament can be reproduced. If the game
record cannot be reproduced, due to such factors as uses of
random numbers, the participant is required to report to the
organizing committee.
e) If the investigation determines the allegation to be
reasonably credible, some members of the participants, as
well as the organizing committee, may be asked to join the
investigation. In such an event, those members may be given
(copies of) the submitted copy of the program as
evidence. Before the organizing committee distributes the
copies of the program to the investigating participants of
the tournament, the alleged participant will be notified.
f) If a program is not alleged of any fraud one year after
the end of the tournament, the submitted copy of the program
is returned to the participant. The participant is asked to
confirm that the seal is unbroken.

3. Treatment of Fraud

(1) Procedure

Step 1: If a program is considered to be fraudulent, any
person involved in the tournament can present his/her
allegation to the organizing committee anytime during the
tournament and within one year after the tournament.  The
person should give the organizing committee the reason for
his/her allegation in an e-mail.

Step 2: The organizing committee evaluates the allegation
and, if the allegation is found credible, the alleged party
is notified of the allegation and the alleger's name.  If
the allegation turns out to be groundless, the allegation is
rejected and the following procedure is not pursued.

Step 3: The organizing committee will appoint the Allegation
Committee. The committee will mediate between the alleger
and the alleged, and in some cases his/her associates, in
their discussion of the matter.  A new mailing list is set
up specifically for the Allegation Committee, which also
includes the alleger, the alleged, and his/her
associates. The discussion will be conducted mainly on the
mailing list. The committee will attempt, as far as
possible, to evaluate and ascertain all the evidence
presented by both parties.

Step 4: When the committee decides the discussion is leading
to no conclusion, it will distribute the submitted copy (see
above) of the alleged program to all the pertinent parties.

Step 5: If the dispute still reaches no conclusion after
step 4, the Investigation Committee will be set up. The
members of this committee are summoned by the Allegation
Committee and will consist of the collaborating participants
of the tournament. The Investigation Committee will be
included in the mailing list set up in step 3.

Step 6: If the above procedure still produces no conclusive
result, the information is disclosed to all the participants
of the tournament (see (2)), and after the period of one
year the case is closed.
  
(2) Disclosure of Information

If the discussion among the alleger, the alleged, and
his/her associates reaches a conclusion, or otherwise when
the first two months have passed, the relevant committee
will disclose the contents of discussion up to that time
over the mailing list consisting of all the participants of
the tournament.  The information disclosed on the mailing
list is freely redistributable, and after this the
discussion of the allegation will be conducted on the
mailing list.

(3) Fraud:

When a fraud becomes evident, the records of the fraudulent
program are deleted from the tournament records. The
programmer, and his/her associates, will be disqualified
from the next three tournaments.  A program which has been
proved to be fraudulent in any other Computer Go tournament
is treated similarly.  A program is proven to be fraudulent
when the developer(s) confesses to the fact or when it is
proven guilty in a court of law.