May 5, 2007
MarkBernstein.org
 

Digg

There's an interesting battle over at Digg, a social bookmarking service. Someone figured out the encryption key for HD-DVD disks and posted it on their web site. Someone else in the industry said "that's our secret: take it down!" So they did. The code spread, and more cease and desist orders flowed.

That was yesterday.

Needless to say, some people bookmarked the controversial sites with the code, and so the code showed up at Digg, and Digg got a cease-and-desist order too. And so they'd delete the bookmarks, and users would make MORE bookmarks, and there was a full-scale donnybrook. Eventually, Digg reversed field:

But now, after seeing hundreds of stories and reading thousands of comments, you’ve made it clear. You’d rather see Digg go down fighting than bow down to a bigger company. 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.

If we lose, then what the hell, at least we died trying.