thisisby.us - The Internet Is Revolting, by Penforth Naim

How one a silly little number caused an internet revolution

"An enterprising person came up with the hexadecimal code that would allow HD-DVD users to break the copy-protection encription on their DVDs. It was widely disseminated through various sites that catered not only to those attempting to use the code for legal purposes (for instance, making a copy of a DVD they had purchased as a backup), but also for those whose intentions were, ah, not as legal. An enterprising member of the digg.com community posted the hexadecimal code to the site. The moderators at Digg removed the post. And then the skies opened up."

FOLLOW UP: Digg gave in. The head honcho wrote: "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."