I've always wondered whether my famous "number defence" would work in copyright cases. It argues that no digital file can be copyrighted. It goes like this:
Is the number 1 copyrightable? No, because it exists and was "discovered".
Is the number 2 copyrightable? No, because it exists and was "discovered".
Is it reasonable to assume therefore that this very large number X, that represents this disputed file, cannot in fact be copyrighted because it already existed was in fact just "discovered"?
If it's argued that there was some effort to "discover" this number, then I'll write a generator that produces each number between -1 million and +1 million and claim "copyright" over each of them. After all, regardless of the process for arriving at a particular mp4 of a movie (people just dancing round on a set, running the output through various software, etc.), the final output is simply a number. Just because someone went to a lot of effort shouldn't prevent me from going through some effort to write files containing each number between -1 million and +1 million and charging royalties for anyone to use them.
In fact, this raises the interesting point that anything that can be represented as a number already fundamentally exists in the range 0 to +infinity. It's just down to us to discover them. Think about that for a moment: Somewhere out there in the range 0-infinity is a good Star Wars Episode 7 just waiting to be discovered.
We could therefore write algorithms that search all the numbers in some search space (e.g. whatever 0-3mb is in decimal), scan them to see if they're valid files, e.g. mp3s and then run them through AI to see how they compare to known music, etc.
Thus, a new tech "Big Random" is born... I thank you :-)
This is an absurd argument. Software (and written work) is not generated by random number generators...even though it theoretically could be.
If you can randomly generate works that have market value (copyright is intended to encourage creation of works with value, not merely a sequence of random words or bits), then we can talk about whether they're individually copyrightable (maybe the generator itself is the only copyrightable work in the picture, I dunno).
But, no one is going to take an argument seriously that because the number 1 (or the letter "a") cannot be copyrighted then no sequence of numbers or letters can be copyrighted.
I can generate works with market value. In pseudocode:
i=0
while {
write_to_file("%s.bin" % i, i)
i++
}
Of course the effort is in discarding the dross.
How are we to determine "market value"? And let's not forget, the copyright crowd don't want to claim rights over just 1 specific number, but any number that happens to render (when run through a movie player) anything that resembles e.g. Star Wars. I don't think this argument is as absurd as it first appears...
"And let's not forget, the copyright crowd don't want to claim rights over just 1 specific number, but any number that happens to render (when run through a movie player) anything that resembles e.g. Star Wars. I don't think this argument is as absurd as it first appears..."
It makes it more absurd, as it indicates clearly that it's not a random sequence of numbers that is being protected by copyright, but a specific, recognizable, creative work. If I watch an mpeg of Star Wars and then watch a laser disc version of Star Wars, I will recognize them as the same work (well, ignoring Lucas' retconning nonsense and CGI shitshow). Most humans would, including most judges and juries in a copyright case.
"The copyright crowd" includes the leadership (and presumably the populace) of nearly every developed nation on earth, so you're arguing against a pretty solid majority (which is fine, I have some unpopular ideas that I hold pretty strongly...the majority seems to love and support war and killing more than I ever will).
Anyway, I'm all for reasonable copyright terms (and the US has absurd and abusive copyright law that punishes and inhibits new creators at the behest of old corporations and billionaires), but it's just not a sound basis to argue that because one can randomly generate any creative work given infinite monkeys and infinite time that no creative work should be able to be copyrighted. It says that there is no difference between a creative work, like Star Wars, and a random series of bits, because Star Wars can be recorded as a (non-random) series of bits.
Is the number 1 copyrightable? No, because it exists and was "discovered".
Is the number 2 copyrightable? No, because it exists and was "discovered".
Is it reasonable to assume therefore that this very large number X, that represents this disputed file, cannot in fact be copyrighted because it already existed was in fact just "discovered"?
If it's argued that there was some effort to "discover" this number, then I'll write a generator that produces each number between -1 million and +1 million and claim "copyright" over each of them. After all, regardless of the process for arriving at a particular mp4 of a movie (people just dancing round on a set, running the output through various software, etc.), the final output is simply a number. Just because someone went to a lot of effort shouldn't prevent me from going through some effort to write files containing each number between -1 million and +1 million and charging royalties for anyone to use them.
In fact, this raises the interesting point that anything that can be represented as a number already fundamentally exists in the range 0 to +infinity. It's just down to us to discover them. Think about that for a moment: Somewhere out there in the range 0-infinity is a good Star Wars Episode 7 just waiting to be discovered.
We could therefore write algorithms that search all the numbers in some search space (e.g. whatever 0-3mb is in decimal), scan them to see if they're valid files, e.g. mp3s and then run them through AI to see how they compare to known music, etc.
Thus, a new tech "Big Random" is born... I thank you :-)