> illegal numbers in the USA land of the "free"

This is a silly take for anyone in tech. Any binary sequence is a number. Any information can be, for practical purposes, rendered in binary [1].

Getting worked up about restrictions on numbers works as a meme, for the masses, because it sounds silly, but is tantamount to technically arguing against privacy, confidentiality, the concept of national secrets, IP as a whole, et cetera.

[1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shannon%27s_source_coding_th...

Good thing that is part of the wikipedia entry:

> Any piece of digital information is representable as a number; consequently, if communicating a specific set of information is illegal in some way, then the number may be illegal as well.

All those things are not self-evident and thus debatable

> not self-evident and thus debatable

Totally agree. But prompting debate or even further thought isn’t the point of the meme.

I'd argue that, as satire, it's the main point ;)

> as satire, it's the main point

There is thought-stopping satire and thought-provoking satire. Much of it depends on the context. I’m not getting the latter from a “USA land of the ‘free’” comment.

> is collecting rain water illegal?

> It depends on where you live. In many places, collecting rainwater is completely legal and even encouraged, but some regions have regulations or restrictions.

United States: Most states allow rainwater collection, but some have restrictions on how much you can collect or how it can be used. For example, Colorado has limits on the amount of rainwater homeowners can store. Australia: Generally legal and encouraged, with many homes using rainwater tanks. UK & Canada: Legal with few restrictions. India & Many Other Countries: Often encouraged due to water scarcity.

That takes me back! Fark.com would delete any comment that contained random hexadecimal.

It was the beginning of the end for Digg, too, IIRC. Started a lot of people leaving for Reddit, right?

I think so; I joined Reddit when it was in tech news as people left Digg after the big redesign. I'm not sure when the exodus started. I left Fark over the hd-dvd mess.

> whose publication or inappropriate possession is claimed to be illegal in the United States.

That's not the same thing as a number being illegal at all. Here, watch this:

> I claim breathing is illegal in the United States

There, now breathing is claimed to be illegal in the United States.

In both cases, legality depends entirely on repercussions, i.e. if there's someone to enforce the ban. I suspect that in the "illegal numbers" case there might be.

man that's very concerning for wikipedia who is publishing it right there on the page linked above.

Only concerning if they are a US based company hosting their data in US data centers. oops