It is impossible to copyright a sequence of numbers, even in hexadecimal, as so vehemently emphasised by Digg’s readership today. What implication then, for our digital information?
Can’t copyright me down
47 49 46 38 39 61 28 00 28 00 E6 76 00 FF FF FF FE FE FE FD FD FD FC FC FC FB FB FB FA FA FA F9 F9 F9 F8 F8 F8 F7 F7 F7 F6 F6 F6 F5 F5 F5 F4 F4 F4 F3 F3 F3 F2 F2 F2 F1 F1 F1 F0 F0 F0 EF EF EF EE EE EE ED ED ED EC EC EC EB EB EB EA EA EA E9 E9 E9 E8 E8 E8 E7 E7 E7 E6 E6 E6 E5 E5 E5 E4 E4 E4 E3 E3 E3 E0 E0 E0 DF DF DF DD DD DD DC DC DC DB DB DB DA DA DA D9 D9 D9 D8 D8 D8 D7 D7 D7 D6 D6 D6 D5 D5 D5 D4 D4 D4 D3 D3 D3 D2 D2 D2 D0 D0 D0 CF CF CF CE CE CE CD CD CD CC CC CC CB CB CB C9 C9 C9 C5 C5 C5 C4 C4 C4 C3 C3 C3 C1 C1 C1 BE BE BE BD BD BD BB BB BB BA BA BA B9 B9 B9 B8 B8 B8 B6 B6 B6 B5 B5 B5 B4 B4 B4 B3 B3 B3 B2 B2 B2 B1 B1 B1 A9 A9 A9 A6 A6 A6 A5 A5 A5 A4 A4 A4 A3 A3 A3 A1 A1 A1 A0 A0 A0 9F 9F 9F 9E 9E 9E 9D 9D 9D 9C 9C 9C 9B 9B 9B 9A 9A 9A 99 99 99 98 98 98 95 95 95 94 94 94 93 93 93 92 92 92 91 91 91 90 90 90 8F 8F 8F 8D 8D 8D 8C 8C 8C 8B 8B 8B 86 86 86 85 85 85 84 84 84 83 83 83 82 82 82 81 81 81 80 80 80 7F 7F 7F 7E 7E 7E 7C 7C 7C 7B 7B 7B 7A 7A 7A 78 78 78 76 76 76 75 75 75 74 74 74 73 73 73 72 72 72 71 71 71 70 70 70 6F 6F 6F 6E 6E 6E 6D 6D 6D 6C 6C 6C 6B 6B 6B 6A 6A 6A 69 69 69 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 21 F9 04 01 00 00 76 00 2C 00 00 00 00 28 00 28 00 00 07 FF 80 76 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 8A 86 2A 31 38 3A 39 91 38 93 3A 35 39 8B 98 84 39 15 00 9D 9E 9E 17 4A 99 A3 47 00 15 A7 A8 15 14 AB 5D A3 99 4C 00 AB B2 B3 14 5E AE 98 B0 12 BA 11 BC BD 11 5F AE 05 40 C3 3F 3F 3E 07 84 4D 00 0F CC CD CE 60 A3 10 41 28 1A 24 24 19 2D 3E 18 83 CA 0D DE 0C E0 E1 0C 61 99 17 41 1E 26 3B EA 3B 25 21 3E 42 3D 3D 4E 00 0B F5 F6 F7 62 3A 3A 3C 34 3A 88 2C 41 26 DC B8 61 A3 A0 0D 09 2F 7C 74 9A 87 A0 A1 C3 87 63 3C 95 10 83 68 CA 05 11 33 32 CE 90 21 E3 C4 06 1F 17 2E 3C 01 60 C0 40 81 93 28 4F 92 B1 C0 D2 02 99 8A 19 4E C0 80 F1 A2 E6 8B 14 1A B6 5C B0 10 25 C0 80 9F 40 81 16 30 D3 D2 42 19 44 54 0A A0 58 BA F4 84 D3 02 5B 58 32 E1 30 40 80 D5 AB 02 08 78 B0 92 CA 0C 52 03 1F C2 8A 0D 6B 80 CB A9 23 5A D8 A8 5D B3 46 8D 5B 35 59 FF 90 CC 3A 83 F4 80 06 0D 19 F2 EA 3D C0 85 96 DF BF 15 D0 20 4D A0 AB 70 E1 04 5D 26 28 5E CC B8 B1 A7 15 56 90 2A B8 77 4F 81 17 35 43 7C 69 F6 65 84 4D 1B 2C 44 10 35 91 90 32 25 05 60 67 22 40 58 CD BA F5 6A 36 98 86 D0 99 4D 67 8E 6D DB 72 8C D8 91 D2 DA 99 EF 35 B7 EC 50 A1 62 68 8A 83 E3 C8 93 23 87 7D AB 0A F1 42 53 BC 49 9F 3E DD 4D F0 2A 55 0C 51 11 C7 5D 9C F5 E6 D9 0B 51 51 40 BE BC 02 1F E6 15 BC B9 1E 9E 50 95 04 F0 E3 27 28 22 3F C1 7A F0 86 AA 3C 74 78 65 3F 1C F6 F9 95 24 60 49 57 0C 68 C0 7F 98 14 10 43 15 50 2C 91 C4 11 48 F0 00 C2 04 04 54 51 DA 49 69 94 06 87 08 1D 50 98 C8 01 55 E0 E0 C2 04 0A 9C A0 03 12 2A 94 90 41 15 04 B4 E8 22 01 6A BC 48 40 1C 25 D4 98 C1 87 55 4C 80 C1 02 02 2C 20 02 8A 25 8C 50 45 50 40 A9 41 24 8D 35 8E 90 08 62 02 55 D4 00 43 0A 28 C0 90 03 90 17 60 51 15 56 02 A8 81 15 01 72 D4 58 C2 05 89 10 70 44 1D 6A 78 A1 45 16 59 0C 11 42 03 02 34 D1 81 00 01 C4 19 A7 1A 72 0E 00 02 18 25 7C C0 26 26 5E D6 F8 C0 20 45 80 41 47 1D 84 16 6A A8 18 55 FC 19 DC A2 8C 36 EA E8 A3 90 46 2A E9 A4 94 56 6A 69 A4 81 00 00 3B 47 49 46 38 39 61 28 00 28 00 E6 76 00
The idea that someone could copyright this string is laughable, right? But what happens when you tell your computer to read this number? It opens up the file as the copyrighted trademark, “Little Digg“
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Digg’s users have opened a can of worms – does me (hypothetically!) taking my new Spiderman 3 pirate video file and renaming it Spiderman.bin – binary file – render it an uncopyrightable sequence of hexadecimal numbers? Could every bittorrent, FTP, p2p or Usenet file not be considered a simple collection of numbers, that certain unscrupulous people may then consider viewing in another form? Surely then, that would make the sharing of these magic numbers perfectly legal, and only the viewing of these files in their copyrighted form – a visual or aural depiction of the “copy” (in the written sense) – would be violating the rights of the copyright owners.
Of course, if it is possible to copyright a large chunk of numbers, what is to stop someone from just randomly picking a bunch of 0s and 1s, copyrighting it, and asking for royalties if that sequence ever happens to come up? It would be akin to someone holding copyright over the phrase “and from the shadows came” – its worthless on its own, and entirely uncopyrightable.
Who could predict how this will end? However, surely Digg.com, and its accomplices in MPAA and RIAA have done nothing good for themselves by attempting to claim ownership to a sequence of numbers, but to open to question the validity of every other argument they’ve made.
PS: If I figure out Pi, I’m copyrighting it. I’ll be rich.
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Tags: code, digg, freedom, intellectual property, piracy, sharing
The sequence of numbers isn’t copyrighted, the work it encodes is. The AACS key doesn’t represent a copyrightable work, and thus is completely different from, e.g., a movie or game. Next question?
Yes, but it isn’t being transmitted as the work it encodes. It’s being transmitted as a sequence of numbers. Thus, using the numbers to produce a copyrighted work would still be illegal, but transmitting the numbers is no more illegal than adding them together and dividing by eleven.