Copyright Claimed on Telephone Tones

Posted by ryuzaki0 on Wednesday October 3, 2001 @01:41PM from the ode-to-dtmf dept.

awful writes: "Two composers in Australia have copyrighted over 100,000,000,000 phone tone dialing sequences. They state in the article that they are lampooning copyright laws that protect big business rather than artists. Their website has more info and explains how they did it. You can check your number and make sure it hasn't been copyrighted by these guys. They have already recieved one offer of money - from a guy who wanted to purchase the copyright to his number so he could stop direct marketing firms from calling him." Somehow I don't think the inventors of DTMF envisioned this. Update: 10/04 14:11 GMT by M : There's a US mirror available.

1 of 495 comments (clear)

If you have a phone number, you have prior art by Cerlyn · 2001-10-03 15:11 · Score: 1, Troll

Judging from the comments, one would think we would have realized by now that you occasionally *call home* or *call work* on occasion.

If your home or work number has stayed the same for a while, you likely have prior art on them. It would be funny if a million slashdotters suddenly sued them for big bucks for trying to make money on a number they've called for years...

Anyways, kudos to them. I like this copyright trick.