Trouble at Digg highlights the Web 2.0 problem

Meltdown happens when a large community wants to do something but the owners won't let it:-

http://www.digg.com/

Every single story on the homepage was the same story about a hex based key which unlocks copy-protection on HD-DVD content allowing it to be viewed on any computer. Digg kept removing it, the diggers kept putting it back.

Eventually, Digg founder Kevin Rose gave up and left them to it:-

Quote:

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.

http://blog.digg.com/?p=74

Many of these "ganging up on the network" principles apply to VoIP networks. Skype for instance, which is vastly larger than Digg and predominantly still a techie crowd, could cause real issues over on the Skype forum (or even on the network itself) or on other sites. The problem with allowing people to network within communities is that sometimes the community will turn against you.

HD-DVD, the company which is having its security code plastered all over the net by Digg, is one of Diggs largest advertising clients.

And now Kevin Rose is on record that he'll actively allow copyright infringement and content theft to be promoted on Digg. That stance could backfire quite dramatically....

Reply from ianplain on May 02, 2007 - 09:50 AM

Quote:

we won’t delete stories or comments containing the code and will deal with whatever the consequences might be.

Foolish man. Lets hope he lives outside the claws of the US legal system.

But then reading his whole comment,

Quote:

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. If we lose, then what the hell, at least we died trying.

I take that as saying, "Well if you want to bring us down, Then go ahead"

The original entry explaining http://blog.digg.com/?p=73 their reasons is clear and to the point.

My guess is he knows the site will die, So is now working on a new project. And He wont be to blame for what happens to Digg that will be up to the users, Who having agreed to the T&Cs then throw up their arms when they breech them and get picked up on it.


Ian

Reply from dean on May 02, 2007 - 12:13 PM

I agree Ian - Kevin Rose has basically just stuck his middle finger up at the MPAA and said "bite me". It's just plain wrong to do that. Social peer pressure does not obliterate over 100 years of copyright law and policy. It is not OK to steal.

There'll be trouble over this. It's not the first time either - YouTube, another site I put in the "2.0" category simply because of the community nature of it, did the same thing (then again, Google have far deeper pockets).

Is the internet becoming mob-rule?

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