The Code and Digg

I like Digg. It's a trifle less misogynistic than Fark, and it's easy to peek at for a stolen moment or two when the B is playing on her own. (She's taken to pushing my hands off her toys when she wants some alone playing time.)

Yesterday, they received a takedown message from MPAA over several users posting stories including the key that will decrypt HD-DVDs. Digg was faced with a lawsuit that has the power to suck enough money out of their venture that winning or losing any lawsuit against the MPAA has the same potential effect: the financial ruin and the death of the site itself.

The more the Digg admins tried to remove the key from stories and comments, the more the users insisted on posting it. It's now there, pervasive enough that removing it would consist of nuking the site as a whole.

Though anyone with a need to know this key likely has it memorized by now, they're still faced with a likely lawsuit. Is it really worth it to fight for "free speech" on a site you like, just to possibly kill the site due to the huge amount of money a lawsuit will suck away from the site? Why Digg? Because it's a user submission site? I don't get it.

I mean, I think all the copy protection, when it blocks uses that are covered under Fair Use laws, is ridiculous. Is it worth taking someone's very successful venture and possibly throwing it down the toilet just because, one night, that's where the battleground was?

(And in classic I-have-a-baby mode, this all happened last night and I only learned of it this morning.)