At the risk of shameless self-promotion, here's a view of how it affected the Big Three usergen sites -- Digg, Slashdot, Wikipedia: http://www.andrewlih.com/blog/2007/05/02/what-does-cyber-revolt-look-like/ -Andrew On 5/2/07, Jose P. Zagal <jp@cc.gatech.edu> wrote:

The Digg admins have since changed their position on the issue. See the latest entry on the Digg blog: http://blog.digg.com/?p=74

Jose

Ellie Wix wrote:

...

I found this story on gizmodo.com this morning and thought I might share for anyone who might be interested.

Apparently someone found an HD-DVD key code that would allow users to bypass copy protection. This was posted onto Digg but was then removed for obvious reasons. Out of anger the users are now (is diggbombing a word?) flooding the site with the code in retaliation to it being removed. Even now I'm looking at a few of my friends who have the code as their away messages.

http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/geeks-will-not-be-silenced/breaking-digg-riot-in-...

And thanks to the entire list. I posted a question and req for lit a few months back and it helped tremendously, even changed the course of my project.

-Ellie _______________________________________________ The air-l@listserv.aoir.org mailing list is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org

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-- José Pablo Zagal PhD Candidate - Georgia Institute of Technology jp@cc.gatech.edu - http://www.cc.gatech.edu/~jp

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On 5/2/07, Ellie Wix <elliewix@gmail.com> wrote: <snip>

but on the other hand the users need to learn how to play by the rules. Would Digg allow someone to post the direction on how to break in and steal a newer car with theft protection?

Digg has had front-page stories on things like breaking into a Krytonite lock with a Bic pen and how to use bump keys, so the short answer to your question is "yes, they would." Of course, the issue here is a bit more complicated than stealing a car. The DMCA tilts the traditional balance between temporary monopolies on intellectual property and fair uses far (and many argue too far) in the direction of owners of IP. The idea that you cannot utter a secret word, nor post a hyperlink to someone who has uttered that secret word, is bizarre in the extreme. This goes beyond the 2600 case, in which the court basically said that the code was not speech, but rather a machine because it could be (ultimately) executed. This is just a string of digits. Had they made the code the first n digits of pi, they would have effectively illegalized a number. No doubt, many of those protesting on Digg are not doing so from a particularly principled position, but their core argument--Digg is user-built and can be user-unbuilt--is less "riot" and more active demonstration of power. Alex -- // // This email is // [X] assumed public and may be blogged / forwarded. // [ ] assumed to be private, please ask before redistributing. // // Alexander C. Halavais // Social Architect // http://alex.halavais.net //

Kevin Guidry wrote:

Compare with the similar experience Slashdot went through several years ago when Jon Katz announced that he was going to (or perhaps already had done so - can't recall) publish users' comments in one of his books without attribution or permission. That seemed to be more of an ownership and copyright issue than a "selling out" issue but if your assertions are correct then there are some similarities.

For /. ownership and copyright was the big issue (I was involved in that to a degree, in fact I think my first ever /. comment was to that posting.. *sniff* MEMORIES!!), but I think the idea underlying that was still this idea of "selling out" users in order to make a buck. And in that was a morality too... /. had always been seen as a "not evil" website, one of the "good guys" who "get it." When Katz announced the book thing, it suddenly made /. part of "The Man" who just wanted to make a buck and didn't care about wider community issues and loyalties. I've seen this in several online communities as well, and the passion that surrounds them fascinates me, almost as much as seeing how so many companies just don't "get it." I was involved with an online comic strip for several years and saw it myself, and ended up as point person at one point having to answer the calls of "sell out!" myself. That's a hard thing to do, because once geeks make up their mind you've sold out... it's hard to recapture their trust (please note that I use geek as a geek myself, and as a positive descriptor :)). Geeks want to see their favourite sites make money so they can stay in business... but there's a fine line in how you can make that money and still stay "true." I think Digg's blog post was a step in the right direction, and I do see the front page of digg starting to recover... but I'll be interested to see if their volume changes over the next month or so. This also reminds me of the DVD-encryption blowup that happened several years ago as well, where the MPAA got some kind of injunction to keep websites from distributing the code (it's been a while and the brain is fuzzy from end-of-semester stress). I love enterprising geeks, instead of electronically distributing the code it was put on tshirts and all other sorts of apparel. I have a great tshirt I got at a convention with the code on it, given away for free. Ah, those were the days. -Christine