A DRM licensing authority is strong-arming search engines, bloggers and open source advocates in a desperate attempt to stop the spread of a software key that discables copyright protections on Blu-ray and HD-DVD disks.

Copyright reform activist Cory Doctorow on Monday decided to remove the information from a group blog to which he contributes after he received a cease and desist letter from the Advanced Access Content System Licensing Administrator (AACS-LA).

The consortium is backed by technology vendors including IBM, Intel, Microsoft, Sony and the Walt Disney Company. It oversees the AACS digital rights management technology that is used on high definition DVDs.

The so-called processing keys that the blog published lets users disable the DRM technology that prevents users from copying the disks or from playing it on unlicensed equipment or software.

Doctorow isn't the first blogger to receive a legal order from the DRM technology group. Several other blogs have been ordered to remove references to the key and links to a forum where it was first disclosed. Google also has received legal threats from the company.

The crack first surfaced mid February a Doom 9 forum.

In an act of defiance, numerous bloggers have posted the key on their websites or linked to the website detailing the original crack. They also submitted such web pages to social news services such as Digg in an effort to spread the information to a wide audience.

Ultimately the AACS' campaign succeed in achieving the direct opposite of what it attempted. Instead of stopping it from spreading, it notified more people of the crack and methods explaining how to exploit it.

They're having a meltdown at Digg over this.

Ultimately the AACS' campaign succeed in achieving the direct opposite of what it attempted. Instead of stopping it from spreading, it notified more people of the crack and methods explaining how to exploit it.

Bingo ,

and off to google I go ..................................

Some details here.

http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2007/02/the_new_hddvdbl.html

Some details here.

http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2007/02/the_new_hddvdbl.html

details you say ,

gotta love the May Day comment ...............

thanxs

mid

Wow.

Digg is going crazy with this. They've just pulled the site.

Wow.

Digg is going crazy with this. They've just pulled the site.

It's back now. Via la Revolution

The latest from Digg Blog;

Digg This: 09-f9-11-02-9d-74-e3-5b-d8-41-56-c5-63-56-88-c0

by Kevin Rose at 9pm, May 1st, 2007 in Digg Website

Today was an insane day. And as the founder of Digg, I just wanted to post my thoughts…

In building and shaping the site I’ve always tried to stay as hands on as possible. We’ve always given site moderation (digging/burying) power to the community. Occasionally we step in to remove stories that violate our terms of use (eg. linking to pornography, illegal downloads, racial hate sites, etc.). So today was a difficult day for us. We had to decide whether to remove stories containing a single code based on a cease and desist declaration. We had to make a call, and in our desire to avoid a scenario where Digg would be interrupted or shut down, we decided to comply and remove the stories with the code.

But now, after seeing hundreds of stories and reading thousands of comments, you’ve made it clear. 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 hel_l, at least we died trying.

Digg on,

Kevin

The horse is out of the stable...................