when the blogging gets weird, the weird turn pro

[topaz]

You know a blog is in trouble when the commenters are more coherent and rational than the blogger:

[On why the publication of the HD-DVD key became such a big deal:] The second part of the answer, and the one most often missed by non-techies, is the fact that the content in question is an integer — an ordinary number, in other words. ... Giving a private party ownership of a number seems deeply wrong to people versed in mathematics and computer science. Ed Felten, "Why the 09ers Are So Upset" at freedom-to-tinker.com

I contemplated asking Ed if he felt the same way about the number that makes up his personal PGP key, or his Social Security Number, or his driver's license number, etc. -- until I saw that hundreds of other people had already made that point more articulately than I could.

Comments

[docstrange.livejournal.com]

Nod. It's ownership of a number in a certain context. Like ownership of a name in a particular context or of a series of words, etc. It's just modern intellectual property. Yeah, modern IP certainly has its warts and abuses, but good on everyone for calling Ed on his simplistic formulation.

Remember: Reality is contextual. But like all contexts, you have to enter it to win.

[crouchback.livejournal.com]

Last I checked, it was not possible for me to prevent anyone from using the same nine-digit number that is my Social Security number (which I don't really own, anyway) in other contexts. Nor is that true for my driver's license number or the number that makes up my personal GPG key.

I get his point, although he should have made it differently.

If he's wrong, I claim copyright over pi and all works derived from it. I am Lord of the Circles, bwahahahahahaha!