Copyright is a legal system embedded in a larger technological system. In order to examine the functions of copyright it is critical to examine the larger technological context of copyright: analog media and printed paper in particular. The copyright system includes both the explicit mechanisms...

Identity and identifiers are tightly linked when both are confirmed on paper. In a world of paper, verified pseudonyms and conditional anonymity are impossibilities. Assumptions based on the paper identity system lead to flawed decisions in modern uses of failure-prone identifiers. In this paper...