The Public Domain
Enter the Owner-Free File System
The Owner-Free Filing system is actually a very simple concept. It is a highly connected peer-to-peer distributed file system. The unique feature of this system is that it stores all of its internal data in a multi-use randomized block format. In other words there is not a one to one mapping between a stored block and its use in a retrieved file. Each stored block is simultaneously used as a part of many different files. Individually, however, each block is nothing but arbitrary digital white noise.
The basics of this concept are described in the following papers.
On copyrightable numbers with an application to the Gesetzklageproblem
Method of free speech on the Internet: random pads
Owner-Free refers both to the fact that nobody owns the system as a whole and nobody can own any of the data blocks stored in the system. The latter claim is explained in the following sections.
Owner-less Data
It seems highly unlikely to most people that the same exact data can be used to represent several things at once. This misperception is simply a relic of metaphors taught to new computer users. Traditional metaphors obfuscate an important reality of the digital world. Traditional rules do not apply. Mathematics is the only law.
Curiously, mathematics says:
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•There are an infinite numbers of ways to digitally represent any given work.
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•Every digital representation can be used to perceive as an infinite number of works.
And in saying so, it declares the real world law as bunk.
Numbers
A computer file is simply a number. Normally it is a really big number, but it is otherwise just like any other number. It is one more then the previous number and one less than the next.
We often think about it as a sequence of small numbers (bytes) or sometimes as a sequence of bits (ones and zeros). However, when you line these up in a sequence they form one big number.
Imagine lining up decimal digits. When you line up the sequence of decimal digits; Five followed by three followed by two, is interpreted to be 532 (Five hundred, thirty-two). The same thing happens with binary numbers, but the numbers are usually much longer.
Small Numbers
Why is this important? Well for every number there are an infinite number of possible representations for this number.
Think of the number twelve (12). It can be represented as five plus seven (5+7), or twenty-five minus thirteen (25-13). Taken individually the numbers 5, 7, 13 and 25 are never 12.
If for some reason we were to allow 12 to be copyrighted by Brittney, she would still have no claim on the numbers 5, 7, 13 and 25. I could still copy these numbers and pass them around as I saw fit. As long as I didn’t copy the number 12, I should have no problems with the law.
So what happens if I transmit the “formula” (5+7)? Am I allowed to do that? What about the formula (25-13)? What if I only transmit (5,7) or (25,13)? What is the “meaning” of these transmissions?
There is actually no way to know the meaning of any of these transmissions. The interpretation is purely up to the receiver. The + sign may not mean plus at all. It may only be a separator. (5,7) many mean 57 or 5.7 or any number of possible other interpretations.
There are many legitimate reasons to store or transmit the numbers 5 and 7. As such, the only possible one who can cause a law to be broken is the receiver. If the receiver reconstructs 12 from any transmitted numbers then perhaps the receiver has broken the law. But then again, perhaps not. If no “copy” of 12 is made then no copyright law can have been broken. To play a song is not to copy a song. No more then to play a VHS tape is to copy a VHS tape.
Big Numbers
So now lets translate these principles to big numbers. When we translate something into a computer file we create a sequences of digits that represent the original.
Lets take a song for example. Let’s say, “Lawyers, Guns and Money” is 3MB long. That means the song is three million bytes long or twenty-four million bits long. This makes a very big number, but it is still a number. As every binary number can be translated into a decimal number, I’ll use them to simplify these examples.
Picture the song as this, but much longer.
24332984303829732498…398724
Now there are two other numbers that may be of interest, depending upon how you interpret them. Consider the following big numbers:
11230243302314110327…264211
and
12102741001515622171…134513
Then consider adding them together.
Are these numbers copyrighted? Can I store them on two separate computers? Would that break the law? What if they were never added together? Would their existence still break the law?
What if I give you two other numbers? Again, and again.
There are two consistent ways to answer the above questions. One leads to the conclusion that “All numbers are copyrighted.” The other leads to the conclusion that, “There exists encodings of copyrighted number that are NOT copyrighted.”
If the first conclusion is true, digital copyright is pointless. If the second is true digital copyright is meaningless.
Multi-Use Numbers
The OFF System then takes this key idea farther to show that each of these numbers can be used for many different things simultaneously. Let’s name these numbers now, and add a couple more.
11230243302314110327…264211 = A
12102741001515622171…134513 = B
47379872610938161983…471179 = C
02810398720484003497…102380 = D
We showed above that (A+B) could represent, “Lawyers, Guns and Money”. Interestingly, at the same time (A+C) could represent, “Oops, I did it again!” Who then owns A, Warren or Brittney? Also (B+D) could represent, “Piano Man”. So who ones B, Warren or Billy? Each of these numbers can represent an infinite number of things simultaneously.
Non-copyrightable Numbers
No one person can lay claim to any particular number because other people can and do have equal claim to the same number. In fact, everyone can lay claim to any number since every number can be used to represent any work.
All that is needed is to take the number of a particular given work and subtract from it the number you wish to lay claim. This allows you to lay claim to both target and the difference as well since they are obviously used to perceive your work.
Repeat this process and you can claim the copyright to every number. Unfortunately, so can everyone else. This makes no sense. Hence we claim that these numbers are not copyrightable.
The OFF System
This is exactly what the OFF System does, but instead of adding it uses another logical process called XOR that simplifies the programming. Otherwise the logic is exactly the same.
It then spreads each number to different servers around the internet. This is done to speed retrieval. No fancy encryption is needed as each number has no meaning. No anonymity is needed as no one can tell how the numbers are being interpreted.
Copyright
No creative works, copyrighted or not, are ever communicated between OFF peers. Only meaningless blocks of random data. No tangible copies of creative works are ever stored on OFF peers. It is completely unnecessary.
All retrieval of creative works is done exclusively on the users local machine. More importantly, no copies of a creative work ever NEED to be made. All works can be accessed in-place and on-demand by locally resident software in the same way that traditional file servers are used.
All storage of creative works is done exclusively on the users local machine. Uniquely, only a single virtual copy of the creative work is made directly into OFF virtual file system. That is all that is EVER needed. As with a traditional file server, that single copy is completely private. It is accessible only through the URL possessed by person who stored the work. Again this appears legally equivalent to making a single copy to your personal disk or server.
Should the person who stored the work want to allow access to others, he simply gives them the URL. The receiver can then access the work in-place without needing to make a copy. This is identical to the way that iTunes allows friends to play each others music via streaming without copying.
We call the OFF System a “Brightnet”. No secrecy is needed as nothing shady is going on.
