A bit of Internet history is being made tonight, as digg.com is getting hammered by thousands upon thousands of angry users in response to the site’s deletion of recent posts including the DVD decryption key (DRM) for HD-DVD discs for Linux.

I noticed the first stirrings of this controversy Monday night when I saw a post containing the key being dugg up rapidly (about 200 diggs / min! ..and yes, I dugg it). The author claimed to have had his first post containing the key deleted. When I first spotted the post it had less than 400 diggs and by the time I went to bed a couple of minutes later it was at almost 1000 (it reached over 15,000 before it was deleted). The censorship on digg.com has apparently backfired bigtime, as every single front page story currently contains the DRM key for HD-DVD, and the news is spreading rapidly.

Now besides angry digg’rs, others are getting in on the act. Steven Colbert has joined the list of villianous criminals and bloggers defying the MPAA’s lawyers. Slashdot has a story about the goings on and a link to this song about the DRM key.

Not surprisingly, news has surfaced that diggnation has received sponsorship from the HD-DVD folks. Now, Kevin Rose, co-creator of digg has posted an apology of sorts, promising to leave existing and future posts in violation of the MPAA’s cease and desist order.

If you don’t know why DRM should bother you than consider the following. Under HD-DVD DRM you MAY NOT do any of the follow with HD-DVD video you own (from the Ubuntu documentation):

Play purchased Blu-Ray and HD DVD films using Open Source software.

Play films using standard digital (DVI) or analog (VGA) cables and monitors, which generally do not support HDCP DRM, without a 75% reduction in resolution.

Fast forward through or skip advertisements

Play imported films, including when local equivalents may be overpriced or not available.

Once again I refer readers to this excellent general DRM critique.

Could the digg.com incident be the first occurrence of an internet grassroots phenomena? The speed of this online riot was just shocking, and the number of people motivated to act should give pause to the powers that be. I know I’ll be thinking about the implications of what has happened tonight, it may just be important.

 

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