What is Digg?4 Comments
- treas, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4Actually waterdragon, after taking your advice and googling OFF it seems that your explanation was wrong.
This is what I came up with:
"The argument goes something like this: a copyrighted file is converted into small chunks, which are labeled "A." These chunks are still copyrighted by the original owner. It is then encrypted by performing an XOR operation with a block of random numbers, called "B." The resulting block "C," is still copyrighted by the original owner, but things get really interesting when C is encrypted again, this time using not a series of random numbers, but a block "E" that is pulled out of the user's cache. Block E is itself the result of an encryption of someone else's copyrighted file (D), which would make the final result (F) copyrighted by two content owners at the same time. As it is not possible for both parties to hold a copyright on the same content, the result is that neither party does, and thus the block can be transmitted without fear of lawsuits from the RIAA or MPAA."
-http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20060814-7500.html - WaterDragon, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3Does anyone remember a digg article about the first copyrighted prime?
A guy explained that as any program can be rendered as a binary, which is just a really large number in base two, he had noticed that his program was a prime number.
Thus came the idea that claiming ownership of a digital file is akin to claiming ownership of a number.
I think the article was related to the OFF owner free file system, which was a new kind of file sharing based on the x-or function.
if you Google OFF owner free file system, it is an interesting read. I don't know if their system ever became successful, but it was anyhow a brilliant idea of producing an ultra fast large file transfer method, based on the fact that you already have many of the fragments of the file you want in your recycle bin, or any other garbage file you might save. the protocol simply reconstructs the file you want from your own fragments, and only requires sharing very small pieces of it you don't have...which are not copyrightable, since they are only tiny fragments of code. - str3ama, on 10/12/2007, -3/+1comments don't appear to work.
- Pixelbox, on 10/12/2007, -5/+1Come on, Digg was just trying to obey the LAW here.
So if letters and numbers cannot be owned, at what point is intellectual property protected? What if I linked to the full text of the latest Harry Potter novel? Or the code--numbers and letters--that, once compiled, would play an HD version of Spiderman 3 on your desktop.
Theft does not equal freedom of speech. Those who think it does need to get a ***** life.
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