I own the copyright on the following number. It’s mine, and I’m licensing it under a Creative Commons licence for everyone:
7840503105526216071103157865574030473816135816274075
6659995647367689887704190271686800028652662117436767
3277367311120646735130020647991793716906378068496038
1695401876427914616971423241556196069007992684776810
7140421413129977448963987771460202578977180817576301
0637945407349920630842274701733252363545567191751200
8418817060739478022487892365696480484556391288052670
8409265757194997631649105684044991085523359617979771
5537165589804778865387221835889651966246386788137233
1462875349602216664841504764233358486811183290582291
5278275287922576877967530552582820747972639422108865
3395380485315505521832314901913360126089945951144684
5540895433481351775188493888336736897213647236632858
513568396609123
(C) 2008 MoJo. Creative Commons Licence. By using this number you agree to the licence.
This number is a prime, and the decimal representation of a PNG image file that I created, and is copyright me. It’s quite a nice number I think, ending in a rather satisfying 1-2-3.
I figured, since some companies think they can own a number, I guess I can too and it would be cool to have one! What companies am I talking about? Well, the AACS LA for one, who apparently own 09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0. Here’s a picture of their property:
The RGB values of the bands represent the number, plus C0 on the end. That number also happens to be one of the cryptographic keys used for the DRM on the now obsolete HD-DVD discs.
Actually, they don’t own copyright on the image above, but then again it is an image representing their copyrighted number in a different form (like writing it in a different language). If I write “するだけ” (Just Do It(TM)), does that infringe Nike’s copyright even though it’s in a different format? Well, actually Just Do It(TM) is a trademark, but it was the first thing that came to mind…
I think really the issue here is that copyright law is not really adapted to the digital age. For a start, anything you can store on a computer can be represented by a number. When you download files from BitTorrent, you are really just downloading a big number. Encryption keys are numbers too, as the AACS LA knows, but it’s somewhat unlikely that they could claim ownership of a number…
In fact, under the US DMCA law, there are quite a few possibly illegal numbers. The DeCSS program, for example, which decrypts DVDs and is outlawed by the DMCA can be represented by the following prime number:
4856507896573978293098418946942861377074420873513579
2401965207366869851340104723744696879743992611751097
3777701027447528049058831384037549709987909653955227
0117121570259746669932402268345966196060348517424977
3584685188556745702571254749996482194184655710084119
0862597169479707991520048667099759235960613207259737
9799361886063169144735883002453369727818139147979555
1339994939488289984691783610018259789010316019618350
3434489568705384520853804584241565482488933380474758
7112833959896852232544608408971119771276941207958624
4054716132100500645982017696177180947811362200272344
8272249323259547234688002927776497906148129840428345
7201463489685471690823547378356619721862249694316227
1666393905543024156473292485524899122573946654862714
0482117138124388217717602984125524464744505583462814
4883356319027253195904392838737640739168912579240550
1562088978716337599910788708490815909754801928576845
1988596305323823490558092032999603234471140776019847
1635311617130785760848622363702835701049612595681846
7859653331007701799161467447254927283348691600064758
5917462781212690073518309241530106302893295665843662
0008004767789679843820907976198594936463093805863367
2146969597502796877120572499666698056145338207412031
5933770309949152746918356593762102220068126798273445
7609380203044791227749809179559383871210005887666892
5844870047077255249706044465212713040432118261010359
1186476662963858495087448497373476861420880529443
Anyway, remember to list me as the source if you use my number. Thanks.