<HTML><BODY style="word-wrap: break-word; -khtml-nbsp-mode: space; -khtml-line-break: after-white-space; "><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Did you hear what happened on <A href="http://digg.com/"><FONT class="Apple-style-span" color="#AC5D5B">digg.com</FONT></A> yesterday? When some of its users posted a 16-digit hexadecimal number that is used to lock up HD-DVD movies, Digg removed their posts and terminated their accounts. That’s when the action really started happening…from <A href="http://www.boingboing.net/2007/05/02/digg_users_revolt_ov.html"><FONT class="Apple-style-span" color="#AC5D5B">Boing Boing</FONT></A>:</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><FONT class="Apple-style-span" color="#000000"><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></FONT></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><FONT class="Apple-style-span" color="#000000">The AACS Licensing Authority, which controls the anti-copying technology underlying HD-DVD, sent out hundreds of legal threats to sites that had posted the key, including Digg. It appears that Digg took a pro-active stance and began to seek out new examples of the key and delete them immediately, instead of waiting for notice from the AACS-LA. It’s likely that their lawyers advised them to take this course of action, since the penalties for posting “circumvention devices” can be stiff.</FONT></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: normal;"><FONT class="Apple-style-span" color="#000000"><BR></FONT></SPAN><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: normal;"><FONT class="Apple-style-span" color="#000000"> Digg’s users revolted at this stricture, and saw to it that every single item on the front page of Digg contained the forbidden number. Users accused Digg of taking money from the HD-DVD manufacturers (Digg ran an ad campaign from the company in the late summer of 2006), and complained about the site’s deletion of user accounts.</FONT></SPAN></SPAN></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: normal;"><FONT class="Apple-style-span" color="#000000"><BR></FONT></SPAN><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: normal;"><FONT class="Apple-style-span" color="#000000"> At 9PM last night, Kevin Rose, Digg’s founder, posted about this on the Digg blog, and said that he would no longer take material down, even though it could very well cost him the site. It’s a brave stance, and it seems to have quieted the Digg users’ protests.</FONT></SPAN></SPAN></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: normal;"><BR></SPAN><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: normal;"> The drama continues…as of this evening, there are </SPAN></SPAN><A href="http://www.google.com/search?q=09-f9-11-02-9d-74-e3-5b-d8-41-56-c5-63-56-88-c0&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=com.ubuntu:en-US:official&client=firefox-a"><FONT class="Apple-style-span" color="#AC5D5B">723,000 pages</FONT></A> out there on the net with the number on them. So what to make of all this…”Are social networking sites doomed to failure?” asks <A href="http://scienceblogs.com/cognitivedaily/2007/05/are_social_networking_sites_do.php"><FONT class="Apple-style-span" color="#AC5D5B"><I>Cognitive Daily</I></FONT></A>. What’s your take on it?</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 16px; "><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><FONT class="Apple-style-span">To comment on this post, visit <FONT class="Apple-style-span"><A href="http://webpub.mit.edu/?p=36">http://webpub.mit.edu/?p=36</A> </FONT></FONT></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><FONT class="Apple-style-span"><FONT class="Apple-style-span">Commenting is easy! Anyone with certificates can post to our blog.</FONT></FONT></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Thanks to Michael Dutton of IS&T’s <A href="http://web.mit.edu/ist/usability/"><FONT class="Apple-style-span" color="#AC5D5B">Usability Group</FONT></A> for this post idea. If you have something you’d like to see posted on our blog, email it to <A href="mailto:webpub@mit.edu">webpub@mit.edu</A>! </DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Verdana; min-height: 15px; "><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Verdana; min-height: 15px; "><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: normal;">See you around the 'net...</SPAN></SPAN></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Verdana; min-height: 15px; "><FONT class="Apple-style-span"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;"><BR></SPAN></FONT></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><FONT class="Apple-style-span">Lisa</FONT></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 16px; "><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 16px; "><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;"><BR></SPAN><DIV> <SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; -khtml-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -khtml-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; -khtml-text-decorations-in-effect: none; text-indent: 0px; -apple-text-size-adjust: auto; text-transform: none; orphans: 2; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); "><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; -khtml-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -khtml-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; -khtml-text-decorations-in-effect: none; text-indent: 0px; -apple-text-size-adjust: auto; text-transform: none; orphans: 2; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); "><DIV>Lisa C. Mayer</DIV><DIV>Web and Database Consultant, DCAD</DIV><DIV>Information Services and Technology (IS&T)</DIV><DIV>Massachusetts Institute of Technology</DIV><DIV>Room N42-240C</DIV><DIV>Cambridge, MA 02139</DIV><DIV>617-452-4225</DIV><DIV><A href="mailto:lmayer@mit.edu">lmayer@mit.edu</A></DIV><BR class="Apple-interchange-newline"></SPAN></SPAN> </DIV><BR></BODY></HTML>