Digg the anti-DRM revolution?
Friday, May 4th, 2007We don’t envy Jay Adelson and Kevin Rose, CEO and founder respectively of Digg, the online technology news community website, which earlier this month faced an attack from two fronts; the Advanced Access Content System Licensing Administrator (AACS), and Digg’s own users.
On the one side the AACS; a consortium of technology and entertainment giants such as Sony, IBM, Disney and Warner Brothers, behind the DRM technology in HD DVDs, which issued a cease and desist letter to Digg among other websites, ordering them to remove all postings that revealed a crack to their encryption key that deactivates copyright protection on their discs.
You can perhaps see why they’re upset.
The there’s Digg’s users, who rank and edit the content of Digg’s site itself, who interpreted this order as blatant censorship in the land of the free and home of the brave, and who, when Digg’s bosses announced their compliance with the order and remove the offending posts, immediately revolted; promptly re-posting the encryption key in their thousands.
The result? Rock. Hard place. Ouch!
In the end, Kevin Rose announced a turnaround decision in the Digg offices; they would stand with their bloggers, and let the chips fall as they may.
Is the AACS censoring the blogosphere? The AACS, in its May 7th release, said: “AACS LA began several weeks ago sending letters to parties trafficking in tools used to circumvent AACS technology on Blu-ray and HD DVD movie discs. The letters requested the removal solely of illegal circumvention tools, including encryption keys, from a number of web sites. AACS LA recognizes the value of active public discussion and commentary related to these issues, and has not requested the removal or deletion of any such discussion or commentary. AACS LA is encouraged by the cooperation it has received thus far from the numerous web sites that have chosen to address their legal obligations in a responsible manner.”
So, yes to discussion, but no to quoting of the actual subject of it, i.e. the encryption key in question. Of course the Digg users who kept the issue alive by re-posting the key clearly don’t think so. It’s attempted gagging; no question in their eyes.
It’s a tricky situation, no doubt about it. This revolt in the digital sphere against DRM technology is just the latest episode in an ongoing tug-of-war between IP content owners and users over what constitutes the fair and reasonable range of use across platforms of content that customers have bought. What is reasonable control of IP? What is reasonable use? The ground in the digital realm is slippery – no, perhaps “virtual” is the correct term; “virtually impossible” to define?
Two things are clear; the AACS and its advocates are winning no friends in the blogosphere. And while the scrum goes on, being caught in the middle, Digg may likely be one of the casualties.
© 2007 Julian Boote All Rights reserved.
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