Did everyone happen to catch what happened on Digg yesterday? Short synopsis:
1. User posts code that can crack encryption on new HD-DVDs
2. Post is deleted by moderators in response to a cease-and-desist letter by MPAA
3. Another user posts code in protest at moderation which he sees as Digg seemingly giving in to "the man"
4. Post is deleted by moderators
5. All hell breaks loose
Digg users are traditionally anti-DRM as it is, but coupled with some adsense ads that seemed to suggest Digg was sponsored by the copyright lobby - well, it's no wonder that for 24 hours every single story on the home page contained the code in question.
The most interesting part of this for me is not that Digg kind of self destructed for 24 hrs as the community rose up in protest, but that Kevin Rose ended the day by posting the code himself and basically saying "what the hell, if we go down, we go down in flames". And this morning, the whole controversy seems to have subsided somewhat. Whether or not Digg gets sued for not complying with the cease-and-desist, It's a superb piece of crisis management by the founder - realizing that if your product is based on open conversation, trying to control that conversation is a death knell. Lots of lessons to be learned here.
Stumble This
Reddit!
At least give attribution to the original blogger that wrote this story instead of simply copying the entire article.
In case anyone is wondering, Ed's probably accusing me of plagiarizing Steve over on the crayonville blog.
What he probably doesn't realize is that I AM Steve over on the crayonville blog, and just posted the same entry in two places.
The perils of dual readership :)
I do copy a lot of other crap, though.
My apologies. I knew one of the contributors worked at Crayon, and if I had my had out of my a#@%@ and remembered that.