AACS Group Diggs in Against the Rebels
In a head line that sounds like a recruiting poster for the “Empire” ala Star Wars, the Times on Line is running a feature article on the impacts of the Digg AACS key dust up that took the internet world by storm last week.
With a little over 1.8 million postings of the key to date in the main Google index and a little over 5200 in Google’s blog search, trying to get people to comply with the take down notice is going to be a very expensive process for the AACS group to undertake at this point. Even if they can word format the take down notice, this is a lot of postage and paper to generate, and it keeps on growing.
“Some people clearly think it’s a First Amendment issue. We respect free speech – we know some people are critical of the technology,” Mr Ayers told the BBC. “But a line is crossed when we start seeing keys being distributed and tools for circumvention. You step outside of the realm of protected free speech then.” Source: Times on Line UK
Depending on how it is used, and depending on where it is, this whole process has swung out of control and not in favor of the AACS. A take down notice is not a major life-altering event, although it does have chilling effects on free speech. If you have never checked out the chilling effects web site or its database its one place you have to go, and here is the link.
When it comes down to it though, using patented or trademarked material is against USA laws and regulations, however misused and misguided people can be about copyright (read 10 Zen Monkeys) and the misuse of DMCA and Copyright Law under the Griefers section at 10 Zen Monkeys.
The other issue is that the cat is out of the bag on this one, and recalling the information is going to be near impossible. The people who will make circumnavigation tools already know this and have known it for months, the information is not new. What is new is the near revolt and riot that Digg had to deal with as a indicator of things to come. While the Reddit crowd did not seem to go as bonkers, why did Reddit not face the same customer backlash that Digg did, what did Reddit do differently in their compliance of the take down notice?
That is what we want to know and what is different about the two crowds, since we use both systems.
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