Game Collections for Books

[Originally posted on Tuirgin.com.]

I was dutifully going through my databases collecting games for books I'm working through. I like to load up the game and move through it with the text, checking out the variations, testing ideas I have, finding out why what the author suggests is better, seeing what's wrong with my ideas. Unfortunately I found that my copy of ChessOK's Huge Database didn't have a few of the games I needed, so ChessBase's online database to the rescue...except, they didn't have everything, either. So off to search the ’ol "interwebs".

What I found was Gambit Chess's collection of "DB Books". (Ok, I'll admit it—when I first saw the URL I read it as "game bitches...") They have a rather large collection of PGN and CBV files to accompany a wide range of chess books. These game collections are not annotated. They are, by the descriptions on the site, strictly the moves from the games in the books. But if that is the case why does the site have a note about certain publishers requiring the removal of game collections matching their books? What's the status of copyright and game collections? Who owns the documentation of a game? If individual games are in the public domain, does copyright law apply to a specific selection and order of games? I'm a little puzzled. I'll also note that at the site there are a selection of "free" games, while others are zipped in a password protected zip archive—to get the password, you have to submit a collection of games from a book that isn't already available on the site. I guess I'm just wondering if these collections of games are legit or if they are somehow legally questionable. It would be a shame if that were the case—having a PGN to accompany any given book would be a nice treat.

Are there other good resources for collections of games corresponding to popular chess books?