Digg users revolt over HD DVD Hex codes

Stan Beer
Wednesday, 02 May 2007 13:07

Opinion and Analysis

Social networking site Digg has faced a mutiny by its users over the posting of an allegedly illegal HD DVD decryption code that was leaked onto the net.

Digg apparently received a cease and desist order from the stewards of HD DVD, which is a sponsor of the popular Diggnation Podcast. In response, the Digg team removed the post, which was like a red flag to a bull for the Digg posting community.

Hardline Digg posters rose as one and started posting the offending Hex codes in a mutitude of posts causing the Digg front page to eventually be completely dominated with postings containing the HD DVD cracking code.

Digg, which now has more than one million members, found itself caught between a rock and a hard place. By not acquiescing to the demands of its sponsor, it faces possible legal consequences. On the other hand, without the support of its core users, who are incensed at the thought of being unfairly censored, the social networking site faced a steady slide into oblivion.

Apparently after some soul searching, Digg decided to side with its users. Digg founder Kevin Rose posted a conciliatory response to the user community on Digg the Blog with the 32-bit Hex code in the heading:

"Today was an insane day. And as the founder of Digg, I just wanted to post my thoughts…

"In building and shaping the site I’ve always tried to stay as hands on as possible. We’ve always given site moderation (digging/burying) power to the community. Occasionally we step in to remove stories that violate our terms of use (eg. linking to pornography, illegal downloads, racial hate sites, etc.). So today was a difficult day for us. We had to decide whether to remove stories containing a single code based on a cease and desist declaration. We had to make a call, and in our desire to avoid a scenario where Digg would be interrupted or shut down, we decided to comply and remove the stories with the code.

"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."

As this article goes to publish the Digg site has been down for a number of hours for maintenance.