People getting upset about this is a load of crap. It only confirms what many have suspected for quite some time: that Digg has a large population of immature twits. I only hope that maybe this will cause them to leave.
Let's deconstruct some of the claims:
Not allowing the hex string to be posted violates my freedom of speech!
Bullshit. Digg is not a government entity, it is a private website. Just like TFP has the right to set rules regarding what can and cannot be said, Digg does as well. You do not have the right to say whatever you want on the website someone else is paying for and controls.
You can't copyright a string of letters and numbers!
It's too bad the problem with the numbers has nothing to do with them being copyrighted. The DMCA forbids the distribution of any knowledge regarding the circumventing of copy protection, and distributing the hex string is doing just that. There is absolutely no debate about it: allowing the string to remain on their page is
illegal. It may not be a good law, but it is sadly the law nonetheless.
Digg should stick up for its users instead of censoring them
That's really easy to say when you're not the owner of the website/company that will be sued to oblivion. Digg does not have the resources to fight the MPAA. They are not Google. Kevin Rose, et al are the people who will be
personally affected by a run-in with the MPAA, not any of the cowardly users who insist on posting the string on the website. (More on this below*)
As someone commented on one of the numerous stories on Digg, how about the people who insist on posting the string do so while also posting their full name and address so that the MPAA can easily find them.
OK, but Digg didn't have to go banning users
Digg didn't start banning users until they turned into a bunch of children and repeatedly submitted the same stories with the hex string, after noticing that such stories were being removed. The users that were banned fully deserved it for intentionally antagonizing the issue.
*I saw Kevin's blog post earlier tonight and I'm torn. The fact is, I agree with the spirit of it. The DMCA is a terrible law, and the MPAA is a corrupt organization. It's nice to have people who will stick up to them. That said, I really hope that Kevin didn't come to that decision based on the gang mentality of what I'm sure is only a fraction of Digg users.
I like Kevin (as much as one can like someone who is a friendly internet show host and creator of cool things
), and I trust in his sincerity on this issue. I do not doubt that, when they initially made the decision to censor the string, it was a difficult choice. Kevin's old video podcast, The Broken, is just one example that he is not the kind of person who is a defender of the DMCA. But he's also an intelligent person, and he knows the consequences of being a high-profile target for violating the law. If the MPAA chooses to take serious action on this, Digg
will be shut down, and who knows what kind of damage Kevin may suffer personally. I can only hope he made this decision because it's something he chose to do and believes in, not because he felt backed into a corner by a vocal fraction of Digg users crippling his site.
Finally, you'll note that I edited the string out of the starting post of this thread. TFP isn't high profile, and chances are there's no reason to worry about the string being posted here, but it's not my site and I'm not about to take that chance without first confirming with Halx, who is currently asleep. So, for now, the string will not be allowed on the site. If Halx decides that he doesn't care, then so be it.