Information Society Watch

May 2, 2007, BBC News Service

Attempts to gag the blogosphere from publishing details of a DVD crack on a portal have led to a user revolt. The entire case revolves around a blogger who posted details regarding a DVD crack and a letter from the organisation which that oversees the digital rights management technology on high-definition DVDs, warning the portal to prevent the details of that crack from appearing on it. The decision of the portal to remove the content, triggered a massive wave of protests by bloggers who resubmitted the crack en masse which made the site crash. The promoter of the portal has since decided to not to censor the information and says that that he would rather go out of business than removing the content. This decision by the portal to support the blogger community is the first real attempt to take on corporates which have otherwise bullied and arm twisted other websites into submitting to their agenda.

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