A coding error has been spotted in a video displaying the original source code for the world wide web, used to advertise a $5.4m (\u00a33.9m) auction sale.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Creator Sir Tim Berners-Lee sold a non-fungible token – a certificate of ownership of a digital asset, of the code – through Sotheby’s, on Wednesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The NFT included time-stamped files of the source code and an animated video of it being written.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The researcher who spotted the error said it looked like “a simple mistake”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mikko Hypponen, from security company F Secure, said the symbols “<” and “>” had been translated into HyperText Markup Language (HTML) as “< >”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This was a tactic sometimes used deliberately to protect code – known as “escaping” – but in this case it appeared to have been done in error.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“There have already been discussions about whether this would make the NFT more valuable – like a postage stamp with a misprint error,” he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mr Hypponen added he had not personally bid for the NFT, which was sold to an unidentified buyer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Opening bid
\nWebsite creator Mark O’Neill said it appeared “whoever made the video for the website ran the original text file through something that converted it into HTML”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“It’s embarrassing for Sotheby’s but I trust that nobody has done the same to the original code,” he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sotheby’s and Sir Tim have been contacted by BBC News for comment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The auction began on 23 June with an opening bid of $1,000.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Proceeds will go to charities chosen by Sir Tim and his wife.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
‘Royalty free’
\nSir Tim created the world wide web, in 1989, by connecting different pieces of information on the early internet through hyperlinks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He built the first web browser and server, refusing to patent his invention.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In 1993, Cern, the research organisation Sir Tim worked for at the time, relinquished all its rights to the technology and put it in the open domain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And when the NFT auction was announced, Sir Tim told the Guardian: “The core codes and protocols on the web are royalty free, just as they always have been.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“I’m not selling the web – you won’t have to start paying money to follow links.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“I’m not even selling the source code.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“I’m selling a picture that I made, with a Python program that I wrote myself, of what the source code would look like if it was stuck on the wall and signed by me.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A coding error has been spotted in a video displaying the original source code for the world wide web, used to advertise a $5.4m (\u00a33.9m) auction sale. Creator Sir Tim Berners-Lee sold a non-fungible token – a certificate of ownership of a digital asset, of the code – through Sotheby’s, on Wednesday. The NFT included … Continue reading “Coding error spotted in Tim Berners-Lee NFT sale”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3373","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tech-battery.com\/batteriesblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3373","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tech-battery.com\/batteriesblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tech-battery.com\/batteriesblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tech-battery.com\/batteriesblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tech-battery.com\/batteriesblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3373"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.tech-battery.com\/batteriesblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3373\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3374,"href":"https:\/\/www.tech-battery.com\/batteriesblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3373\/revisions\/3374"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tech-battery.com\/batteriesblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3373"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tech-battery.com\/batteriesblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3373"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tech-battery.com\/batteriesblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3373"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}