"How can anything not be representable with bits?"
Because copyright law (at least in the U.S.) is bat-$#!+ crazy.
"Copyrights cover copying. If you write a novel that turns out to be word-for-word the same with Gone with the Wind and you can prove you never saw Gone with the Wind, that would be a defense to any accusation of copyright infringement." -- Software patents - Obstacles to software development, Richard Stallman
Metadata is not 'Colour' as the article describes it. Colour is "Who created the bits? Where did they come from? Where are they going? Are they copies of other bits?"
Let's use an example: an mp3 of The Eagles' song Journey of the Sorcerer. The Eagles created the song/are 'where the bits came from' (according to copyright law). This can be encoded in metadata. But metadata can be changed. The fact that The Eagles made the song cannot be changed, and thus cannot be reliably encoded into bits. [I think that's what the author is saying.]
Because copyright law (at least in the U.S.) is bat-$#!+ crazy.
"Copyrights cover copying. If you write a novel that turns out to be word-for-word the same with Gone with the Wind and you can prove you never saw Gone with the Wind, that would be a defense to any accusation of copyright infringement." -- Software patents - Obstacles to software development, Richard Stallman
Metadata is not 'Colour' as the article describes it. Colour is "Who created the bits? Where did they come from? Where are they going? Are they copies of other bits?"
Let's use an example: an mp3 of The Eagles' song Journey of the Sorcerer. The Eagles created the song/are 'where the bits came from' (according to copyright law). This can be encoded in metadata. But metadata can be changed. The fact that The Eagles made the song cannot be changed, and thus cannot be reliably encoded into bits. [I think that's what the author is saying.]