>I’ve always been a bit skeptical of applying copyright to compiled and opaque binaries, but I guess I’m in the minority. You're not in the minority - copyrigh

>I’ve always been a bit skeptical of applying copyright to compiled and opaque binaries, but I guess I’m in the minority. You're not in the minority - copyright requiring human authorship and creativity is standing law. A compiled binary cannot be copyrighted on it's own[0]; the copyright flows from the source to the binaries via derivative works. We just don't normally think about this because until very recently all binaries were derivatives of copyrightable human creative expression. Applying a mechanical process to a creative work doesn't make it non-creative, after all. [0] Hand-assembled binaries would be considered "source code" in this case.