Digg stands up to AACS bigwigs, only after virtual riot
By George Gardner
It was nothing but chaos on Tuesday when the people’s social news site, Digg, decided to intervene by removing a user submitted link to an Advanced Access Content System (AACS) encryption key; such information could be used to copy HD-DVD and Blu-ray discs.
The way Digg works, or is supposed to work anyway, requires users to submit links from around the web. Other users will then vote up a story by “Digging” it, or vote it down by “burying” it. The most popular stories (the ones with the most Diggs) make it to the front page for the world to see; such is what happened with the link to the AACS key.
Digg has often come under criticism for allowing its users too much control over the content; but that, in itself, is what makes Digg such a popular social news site.
As a result of legal pressure, Digg was forced to remove the link. “We’ve been notified by the owners of this intellectual property that they believe the posting of the encryption key infringes their intellectual property rights,” a posting on the official Digg blog by Jay Adelson, CEO of Digg. ”In order to respect these rights and to comply with the law, we have removed postings of the key that have been brought to our attention. Whether you agree or disagree with the policies of the intellectual property holders and consortiums, in order for Digg to survive, it must abide by the law.”
This move by Digg created quite an interesting formula. Give the independent and intellectual Digg users the power to control the site, and follow up by censoring the very content that makes this system thrive.
It was an all out revolt; hundreds of users began submitting links to the code, even putting the Key itself in clever phrases within the headline. These links were quickly voted up within the Digg community, eventually consuming the entire front page.
Rather than remove the hundreds of submissions, Digg founder, Kevin Rose, simply gave up, and posted the encryption key himself on the Digg blog; “Digg This,” he responded.
Rose admitted that Digg’s users have made it clear, “You’d rather see Digg go down fighting than bow down to a bigger company,” in a post on Digg’s blog. “We hear you, and effective immediately we won’t delete stories or comments containing the code and will deal with whatever the consequences might be.”
Quite a hard response from one of the top 100 websites in the world, but a move like this will most certainly keep its users happy while ’sticking it to the man.’
Kevin Rose, in a final thought, added: “If we lose, then what the hell, at least we died trying.”
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May 2nd, 2007
It is important to note that not all diggers reacted with the same teenage basement mutiny mentality:
http://www.paydayloanaffiliate.com/blog/DiggersVsDigg.aspx