Digg users revolt over censorship of HD-DVD decryption key

What happens when you try to take away the power from a community that you originally gave power to? A revolt, over the number 09-F9-11-02-9D-74-E3-5B-D8-41-56-C5-63-56-88-C0, the “secret” decryption key for the AACS protection on HD-DVDs. Digg got a DCMA takedown notice for a number, and complied by deleting all the stories that linked to or had this number in the title or description. The users didn’t like this at all, and now the Digg front page is full of stories about this number.

I didn’t think you could own a number, but alas the MPAA thinks it can.

Update: Kevin Rose has responded to the revolt.

2 Comments

  1. Stevie May 2, 2007 at 1:33 pm

    Strictly speaking, it ain’t a number…

    But half the point of encrypting something is for someone else to break it.

    And half the point of rights management is to encourage people to buy more flexible media off terrorists right?

  2. weiran May 2, 2007 at 5:48 pm

    It’s a hexadecimal number, why isn’t it a number strictly speaking just because it isn’t in base 10?

    The whole point of encrypting something is to stop people from “stealing” it, otherwise what’s the point of encryption in the first place.

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