Can an RSA private key be copyrighted? Would the publishing of such a key violate the DMCA 1021 provisions?
<p>Let's say I have found the private key used to digitally sign executables that can be flashed into certain hardware.</p>
<p>If I made a tool that took any compatible binary as an input, and used that private key to provide the signed file as an output, would that...</p>
<ol>
<li>...violate copyright law because of the private key distribution? Or more accurately, are private keys generated randomly by a program (say, OpenSSL) copyrightable in the first place?</li>
<li>... break the DMCA 1021 section? (Assuming that the key isn't used to decrypt a copyrighted work, but just to allow for <em>any</em> binary that is signed with it to be executed in the target hardware)</li>
</ol>

<h2>Only literary or artistic works have copyright</h2>
<p>A number, on its own, is neither.</p>
<p>Of course, a number that is a digital representation of say, The Lord if the Rings, is a copy of a copyrighted work but it is not, of itself, copyrighted.</p>

copyright dmca encryption