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> can you really "copyright" or "own" a mathematical expression or graph, though? Yes, you can. Graphs, numbers, it doesn't matter, it's all information. Can
by umvi 7y ago
> can you really "copyright" or "own" a mathematical expression or graph, though?
Yes, you can. Graphs, numbers, it doesn't matter, it's all information.
Can I copyright my book? What if someone converts my entire book from letters to numbers and them modulates the numbers as a mathematical graph using, say amplitude. Can he freely distribute that graph? Or better yet, can he convert that graph from pixels on a screen to radio waves and broadcast it?
- jordigh 7y agoRaw data generally does not meet the copyrightability threshold in the US (datasets are often copyrighted in the EU, though). The lack of copyrightability of data (say, phone numbers or maps) is why there are paper towns on maps, one kind of copyright traps: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fictitious_entry https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fictitious_entry Mathematical facts are usually also not copyrightable for the same reason: they're just considered raw data. However, we can obviously copyright a mathematics book or article because there's more than just raw facts in it: there's style, presentation, and many other signs of authorship.
- mikecsh 7y agoYour comment reminds me of illegal numbers [1] where a number is illegal because of the information it represents. [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illegal_number https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illegal_number
- rahuldottech 7y agoUnsure about other places, but how it works in my country: http://www.mondaq.com/india/x/784302/Copyright/Mathmatical+Equation+Per+Se+Cannot+Be+Copyrightable http://www.mondaq.com/india/x/784302/Copyright/Mathmatical+E... > In a legal sense also, you can copyright the content of a math book (such as diagrams, word problems, and illustrations) but the formula, problems, proofs, theorems themselves cannot be copyrighted. You cannot copyright a fact which is established and natural i.e., 1+1=2.