After a day spent under seige from its own furious members Digg relented last night and gave the keys back to its users. Digg.com founder Kevin Rose announced that the site's editors are finished removing posts with references to the AACS key:
But the post leaves several questions unanswered.
__Who sent the C&D? __
Rose alludes to a cease and desist, as does Jay Adelson's post. But neither says where it came from, other than a vague mention of the "owners of this intellectual property." Rose hasn't shied away from potential DMCA issues in the past. So why now? Who, exactly, applied the pressure? In the spirit of radical transparency, let's see it. Post it. Show me the C&D.
What happens to the users who were banned?
Numerous Digg users who posted they key have subsequently claimed to have been banned from the site, starting with chesterjosiah who helped create all the fuss in the first place. Rose's post--in which he (bravely?) posts the AACS processing key himself--doesn't address this. Now that Digg's caved, will those users get their accounts turned back on? What happens to their account histories? Digg users are already asking the same question.
Did advertising play any role?
As has been widely pointed out, the HD-DVD Promotion Group has sponsored Digg in the past. Rose doesn't address this, and it leaves a feeling of impropriety hanging over the entire affair. What kind of wall exists between advertising and edit? Did he get a phone call?
What does this mean for the future of Digg?
In 24 hours Digg went from fighting its users to fighting its sponsors. Awkward. That's not going to make anyone happy. After spending a day censoring, deleting, and banning, it's too late to take a principaled stand. Yet in relenting, obviously The Man isn't going to be too happy, either. To get out of this mess, having the site's founder post the key doesn't seem like enough. Digg needs to address who applied the pressure, why it caved, what happens to the banned users, and what its policies will be going forward.
