Digg.com is a site that I've never been too excited about. I've never found it that big of a 'deal' and I guess I also really despise how 'open minded' ultra-liberals constantly use the 'bury' feature to block any news that manages to bubble its way when they don't approve of it. That, and all of the recent 'rumors' (and proof) of how easy it is to game digg.
But I digress...
What floored me recently is the news that digg.com, and its creator/owner, just CAVED into pressure to expose proprietary HD-DVD decryption keys - keys which can be used to bootleg/steal copyright protected movies.
Call me crazy, but just because you don't like copy protection (and I pretty much hate it) - you still don't have the right to steal. And I for one am completely fed up with society's sense of 'entitlement' that stems from use of teh intarwebs. (Oh, I hate the RIAA and MPAA too - but that doesn't entitle me to steal.)
At any rate, I found a GREAT article that provides some great insights into the whole fiasco, and quite justly rips into digg.com:
It was a breathtaking abrogation of responsibility by a person in a position of authority. If you sign up to be sheriff, and are rewarded handsomely for doing so, then your job when the howling mob shows up outside the jail is defend the prisoner under attack, even if you despise him. At the very least, you run away and accept the shame of your cowardice. But the one thing you don't ever do is join the mob knocking down the jailhouse door.
The whole article is just riddled with sound logic, and great 'zingers':
How appropriate that this scandal occurred on May Day, because only a utopian fantasist would argue that all information should be free. It was Abraham Lincoln who said that America's two greatest contributions to mankind were the Declaration of Independence and U.S. Patent (i.e., intellectual property) law. And while I empathize with the frustration of folks who find themselves impeded from the full use of the latest technologies, those morons who want to destroy private property (and that includes trade secrets) put at risk the very future of innovation itself -- not to mention that great creator of human freedom, entrepreneurship.
Go check out the whole article yourself - it's from an unlikely distribution source, but the Author, Michael S. Malone 100% gets it.
And, while I can't believe I'm saying this: Here's hoping the lawyers take digg.com out of existence.
You're an idiot.
It's a random number. Seriously.
You're saying that it's illegal to distribute a number.
You can't magically put in an HDDVD and enter this number, and make a copy. It's not part of a "device intended to dissemble" or disable encryption.
It's not proprietary code, it's not stolen, it's A RANDOM NUMBER. 156,786,114,312. That's some number I just made up too.
Posted by: Chris | May 04, 2007 at 01:01 PM
Chris,
Morons like you are always going off about 'freedom' and the right to information. Usually while you're helping yourselves to someone else's hard work and effort.
I happen to abhor the DMCA - which is a law that protects intellectual property. To an extreme measure. But part of the problem is that laws like that one get passed to protect against thieves like you.
So... in the end, all your 'bong toking' talks about freedom typically end up curtailing my rights. If there weren't such rampant digital theft, I tend to wonder whether there would be so many _idiotic_ laws like the DMCA.
But, regardless: the law exists. So you're the moron. Distributing a bunch of numbers IS illegal you idiot.
That said, your SSN and CC# are just some numbers. Let's publish those. To my knowledge there's NO LAW against publishing your credit card number.
Posted by: Michael K. Campbell | May 04, 2007 at 01:49 PM