HD-DVD Encryption Code Will DUGG Digg Under LAWSUITS?!?
I don’t know if you have noticed or not but a recent hell has broken loose on DIGG. What’s the hell–you ask?
Well, there have been thousands of stories circulating all week on Digg and other ‘hacker’ websites, where cracked HD-DVD decryption keys were posted.
Digg admins have been trying to kill the stories (at time all on FRONT PAGE), but they keep popping back up in one form or another. In fact one got 16,000+ diggs before it was sent to digg heaven (or hell).
It has gotten so bad to the point that one of Digg admins has to PUBLICLY address the issue:
“ Hey all,
I just wanted to explain what some of you have been noticing around some stories that have been submitted to Digg on the HD DVD encryption key being cracked.
This has all come up in the past 24 hours, mostly connected to the HD-DVD hack that has been circulating online, having been posted to Digg as well as numerous other popular news and information websites. 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. 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. Digg’s Terms of Use, and the terms of use of most popular sites, are required by law to include policies against the infringement of intellectual property. This helps protect Digg from claims of infringement and being shut down due to the posting of infringing material by others.
Our goal is always to maintain a purely democratic system for the submission and sharing of information - and we want Digg to continue to be a great resource for finding the best content. However, in order for that to happen, we all need to work together to protect Digg from exposure to lawsuits that could very quickly shut us down.”
BUT—After numerous attempts to delete the hundreds/thousands of digged stories, the admins finally felt the power of their users…(or their hands got tire) 
.
Anyway, in an unwise attempt to deter the Digg users from scampering to a new home, Kevin Rose, the Digg Founder, posted this on his blog:
“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.
Digg on,
Kevin”
From the last 2 main paragraphs of his PUBLIC STATEMENT, you can’t help but afraid that Digg will be dugg under!
The way they handle this situation is unprofessional. Kevin’s statement, “If we lose, then what the hell, at least we died trying,” is nonchalant at best, although I understand why he wants to appeal to the Diggers (me included). But again, I can’t help but fear that Digg will go down hill from such remark and this naive statement:
“[We] will deal with whatever the consequences might be.”
This is more than begging for lawsuits, especially from big CORPORATIONs who–from the testament of time–have NOT been afraid to file lawsuits against big or tiny people (to shut us up).
*Note to yourself M.T.: poking the big bear after it has sent you a warning–a cease and desist letter–won’t help you make a safe escape. The bear will only chase after you–for damaging its ego/stature–that we all should be afraid of the big bad bear).
Anyway, I think it’s to late to offer advice such and such, “I think he should have said or said that…blah blah blah.”
But just for the record, if there’s time left, Kevin should DELETE that sticky/stinking post and add something along that line that explain to the Digg users why it’s important to abide by the LAW (not ‘the man’ or the big CORP) and that the potential lawsuits may brought down Digg and render its service unavailable to the Digg loyal users in the future. He could also include the fact that once the secret is out on the net…well, you know the rest….
Anyway, I’m going to guestimate that there’s going to be lawsuits against Digg.com Inc pretty soon. Yeah, I think the big CORP ‘might’ want something in return (for their ‘potential’ lost due to the leakage of ‘trade secrets’).
My common sense also tells me that ‘knowingly’ encourage/support the act/piracy of ‘intellectual’ copyright infringement WILL get you in trouble, assuming that the HD-DVD corporation has a patent copyright/trade-secrets filed at the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).
DISCLAIMER: There’s NO ‘legal’ advice in this post.
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