Binary forms with the same value set I

Given a binary form $F \in \mathbb{Z}[X, Y]$, we define its value set to be $\{F(x, y) : (x, y) \in \mathbb{Z}^2\}$. Let $F, G \in \mathbb{Z}[X, Y]$ be two binary forms of degree $d \geq 3$ and with non-zero discriminant. In a series of three papers, we will give necessary and sufficient conditions on $F$ and $G$ to have the same value set. These conditions will be entirely in terms of the automorphism groups of the forms. In this paper, we will build the general theory that reduces the problem to a question about lattice coverings of $\mathbb{Z}^2$, and we solve this problem when $F$ and $G$ have a small automorphism group. The larger automorphism groups $D_4$ and $D_3, D_6$ will respectively be treated in part II and part III.