Copyright: your number's up
By FERGUS SHIEL
Thursday 4 October 2001
Listen up, they've got your number. Australian composers Nigel Helyer, aka Dr Sonique, and Jon Drummond have copyrighted 100,000,000,000 telephone tone sequences.
You might not know it but every time you dial a number, you play a short melody.
With the aid of a computer, Helyer and Drummond have notated the tones of every imaginable phone number combination and, in turn, claimed the melodies as their own. Next time you make a phone call, therefore, chances are you'll be in breach of international copyright law.
If business can claim ownership over the elemental building blocks of human life, the composers say it's only fitting that artists lay claim to the "DNA" of business and are paid for it.
"We're saying to (big business), 'Okay guys, the boot is on the other foot. If you really believe in copyright, you've got to pay'," Helyer says.
"I think Mr Howard will be high on the list. Universities. Lots of corporations. We'll go for it."
The composers say their Magnus-Opus is a playful way of lampooning copyright laws that protect big business rather than artists.
You can check your home, work, mobile, fax or modem number against their compositional database by logging on to www.magnus-opus.com.
If your number is matched, the melody will be played, the notes scored and a direction given to complete the licence agreement supplied online as soon as possible.
Helyer and Drummond, who've only just launched the website, say they've had one offer of payment already. "An American guy tired of direct sales people calling him has told us he'd like to purchase the copyright for his number so that he can stop them," Helyer says.
The website explains in greater detail how the composers went about their creation by throwing 16 tone pairs into an algorithmic generation to produce countless melodies.
"The whole telecommunications system is entirely musicalised," Helyer says.
By FERGUS SHIEL
Thursday 4 October 2001
Listen up, they've got your number. Australian composers Nigel Helyer, aka Dr Sonique, and Jon Drummond have copyrighted 100,000,000,000 telephone tone sequences.
You might not know it but every time you dial a number, you play a short melody.
With the aid of a computer, Helyer and Drummond have notated the tones of every imaginable phone number combination and, in turn, claimed the melodies as their own. Next time you make a phone call, therefore, chances are you'll be in breach of international copyright law.
If business can claim ownership over the elemental building blocks of human life, the composers say it's only fitting that artists lay claim to the "DNA" of business and are paid for it.
"We're saying to (big business), 'Okay guys, the boot is on the other foot. If you really believe in copyright, you've got to pay'," Helyer says.
"I think Mr Howard will be high on the list. Universities. Lots of corporations. We'll go for it."
The composers say their Magnus-Opus is a playful way of lampooning copyright laws that protect big business rather than artists.
You can check your home, work, mobile, fax or modem number against their compositional database by logging on to www.magnus-opus.com.
If your number is matched, the melody will be played, the notes scored and a direction given to complete the licence agreement supplied online as soon as possible.
Helyer and Drummond, who've only just launched the website, say they've had one offer of payment already. "An American guy tired of direct sales people calling him has told us he'd like to purchase the copyright for his number so that he can stop them," Helyer says.
The website explains in greater detail how the composers went about their creation by throwing 16 tone pairs into an algorithmic generation to produce countless melodies.
"The whole telecommunications system is entirely musicalised," Helyer says.
