Through last week's HD-DVD Process Key insanity, a common-sense claim was often made: you can't copyright a number. Though represented in hexadecimal, the key is just a series of digits, and a short one at that. However, a number certainly can be subject to copyright if it contains information that represents an original work. Everything can be represented as numeric data. Even prime numbers can be owned thanks to the data they contain: think Jpeg images.
The problem is that a number can be decoded in countless obvious ways — our erstwhile AACS key is shown here as RGB values in a flag. So, does owning copyright in a number imply ownership of these other possible decrypted results? If not, you shouldn't be able to copright the number, as it doesn't uniquely represent the information that's subject to copyright. And if so, we're in real trouble: with the algorithm, that number could appear to contain any information you want it to.
Copyrighting numbers allows for ludicrous claims, but there is a clear necessity to allow exactly that. The potential arbitrariness of decoding schemas is the problem. When do the dunes become a desert?
You Can Own an Integer Too — Get Yours Here [Freedom to Tinker]
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