Something like a phenomena

I won't post the actual number, but I have been fascinated by what's been happening in the last day on Digg. Someone found one of the decryption keys for the new High Definition DVD format (HD-DVD), allowing users to copy HD-DVD content (ie movies) without any copy protection, in some limited series of circumstances.

Anyway, the bottom line is there is a relatively short number that "the man" is trying to supress, whether "the man" is the RIAA or the lawsuit-wary staff at digg. So some of the stories from users trying to spread the key were taken down. My view is the posting motivations have a wide range; either as mischief, civil disobedience, making a statement against DRM, or simply because it was topical.

As you can see from the screenshot, not only is this generating a huge controversy, it's generating a huge amount of traffic. Typically, digg stories on the front page have anywhere from 50-200 diggs with occasional stories getting a thousand or so.

Something around this issue has touched a nerve. I'm interested to see what happens next.

But the result is a huge amount of traffic and activity.

EDIT: Digg has decided not to actively takedown these posts, which seems to have calmed down the users a bit. More coverage and overview from the official digg blog and from BoingBoing