The discussions over IP awakened a memory of an old NPR segment. The summary of “Copyrighted Music and Phones“:
Two Australian artists have written and copyrighted a composition that includes the notes corresponding to the touch-tone phone sounds for every conceivable 7- and 8-digit phone number. Therefore, they say that every time a phone number is dialed, they’re owed a royalty. They say they’re satirizing a culture in which almost every cultural idea is owned by big corporations.
While the artists support copyright law (their issue is with copyrights owned by corporations, not individuals), they address what would happen if copyrights were applied to their logical end.
Note: My favorite quote relative to IP comes from Frank Chorodov in Rise and Fall of Society: Knowing Nock, I am sure that he would be the last to take me to task for appropriating some of his argument, and would be quick to point out that originality is a fiction and a posture.
