Commentary

Just An Online Minute... Digg Execs Bow To Users

It seems that Digg users don't like restrictions on speech any more than restrictions about how they can view content. Yesterday, attempts to censor posts about how to get around anti-piracy restrictions on DVDs resulted in an uprising on the collaborative site that ended only when Digg founder Kevin Rose capitulated to users' wishes.

"Today was an insane day," Rose wrote on the company's blog last night. "We had to decide whether to remove stories containing a single code based on a cease and desist declaration. ... But now, after seeing hundreds of stories and reading thousands of comments, you've made it clear. You'd rather see Digg go down fighting than bow down to a bigger company."

The fracas started when a user posted a link to an article purporting to offer a copyright encryption key for HD-DVDs. Digg was then apparently served with a takedown notice. Company executives tried to comply, but users overwhelmed the site with new posts containing the code or links to it.

Finally, after a day of failed attempts to police the site, Rose acquiesced to the users. "We hear you, and effective immediately we won't delete stories or comments containing the code and will deal with whatever the consequences might be," wrote the founder of Digg -- pegged last year by Business Week as a $60 million business. "If we lose, then what the hell, at least we died trying."

As Facebook learned last year when it implemented new RSS feeds that users disliked, Web 2.0 sites that rely on user participation also need the users' goodwill. Facebook last September modified the feeds after just two days because users felt the new feature compromised their privacy.

The Digg dispute also points to the failure of movie studios and other entertainment behemoths to adjust to the digital world. Remarkably, these companies still think they can prevent people from copying and/or storing movies by releasing them with software restrictions -- apparently unaware that any computer code they devise can, and will, be cracked. And once that happens, it's inevitable that the workaround instructions will be circulated, no matter how many takedown demands movie studios issue.

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