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ZOMG! Infringing lawsuit bait content deleted from Digg!

Found on TechMeme, the story of how posting the HD-DVD content encryption key in a hexidecimal string is getting stories deleted, users banned, and the digg community up in arms.

At issue is the fact that many seem to feel that it is censorship to delete stories about a number that will get Digg into hot legal water. Muhammad Saleem - a rare beacon of intelligence on the issue - outlines the DMCA clauses that have prompted Digg’s entirely justified actions. Does Digg want to get sued out of existence? No. Why does this surprise Digg’s user base? Apparently that user base expects digg to committ legal seppuku on the HD-DVD format body’s legal altar to prove a point about how information wants to be free.

DownloadSquad has the most hyperbolic coverage, comparing the issue to Martin Luther’s XX theses, and treating it as some sort of tipping point in the consumers vs. producers battle.

Let’s tell it like it is: a flash-in-the-pan nerdgasm about a hex string is not an internet revolution - its a great way for a devoted niche group of Linux users to geek out and have some fun. Good for them. Its also conceiveably a major lawsuit vector against Digg, and the users that posted it: its infringement people, and the letter of the law is on the side of HD-DVD. Good for digg for taking it down. All the righteous posturing in the world doesn’t change the situation and the correctness of digg’s actions.

EDIT: Can someone comment intelligently on the “infringement” aspects here? How does this compare to the DVD/CSS situation? Or ripped CD’s?

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