...so this isn't the final word on this subject, by any means.

I can see a regular update of these PRN codes supplied only to paying subscribers.

There may well be some commercial ramifications of the publishing of proprietary trade secrets under the guise of freedom of speech or "open science".

In essence, we're seeing the established, government supported, US space industry trying to sabotage independent commercial efforts to make a buck from space. This is divisive and frustrating, but one can understand the motives of the Cornell researchers who have been trained in an open-data environment.

Were the boot on the other foot, I can see the US invoking the ITARS treaty to suppress publication of their own secret codes...