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Wikipedia Deletes HD DVD Article, Digg Takes a U-Turn

Digg removes HD DVD Stories
Submit a new story on Digg.com with the string 09-f9-11-02-9d-74-e3-5b -d8-41-56-c5-63-56-88-c0 and chances are that your Digg account will either be suspended or removed.

This cryptic hexadecimal number is actually a cracked HD DVD encryption key that can be used for decrypting and playing HD-DVD movies in Linux.

Jay Adelson, Digg CEO, shares some thoughts on why they are going with a stick after Diggers who are digging this HD-DVD serial number:
Digg’s Terms of Use, and the terms of use of most popular sites, are required by law to include policies against the infringement of intellectual property.

This helps protect Digg from claims of infringement and being shut down due to the posting of infringing material by others.
This reason maybe classified as Joke of the Day.

Tons of stories on cracking Photoshop CS3, bypassing Windows Genuine Check, skipping Windows XP activation or links to Photoshop CS2 keygen have hit the popular pages of Digg in the past.

Were these Digg stories not violating any copyright rules ? Why is Digg suddenly feeling worried about their safety at the hands of "IP owners" when such things have always existed and encouraged (read, digged) by Digg members.

Or is it a change of heart and Digg has decided to go strict on stories that break rules. If that's the case, going forward, any story that encourages hacks or any video clip that's breaks copyright should be removed from the Digg queues. Are they willing to go that far ?

Update: Wikipedia staff has now removed the "HD 09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0 DVD" page from their website and also protected it meaning other Wikipedia users cannot recreate the page.

Watch this nice and timely song on the HD DVD encryption key:

Update: Fearing backlash, Digg founder Kevin Rose has suddenly taken a U-Turn - "You'd rather see Digg go down fighting than bow down to a bigger company. 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." [Thanks Kunal]

That statement effectively negates what Jay Adelson had said just a few hours ago.

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