As I write this, Digg is offline after being overrun with stories about the HD DVD key that was recently leaked.

Why are such stories so popular? Primarily because the original story about the leak was removed, which itself was a reaction to recent threats by AACS LA, and these events have garnered widespread attention. Jay Adelson briefly explains the situation and asks for some cooperation:

We all need to work together to protect Digg from exposure to lawsuits that could very quickly shut us down.

Slashdot's story is unlikely to suffer the same fate, so many Digg users are questioning Digg's stance on this issue. To be fair, this has very little to do with Digg specifically, and I wish them the best of luck addressing the current situation.

The real issue is that the traditional notion of damage control doesn't really work in a world where information spreads so quickly. I have previously expressed concerns about mob mentality, and this situation is another lesson. Prior to the recent threats, most people didn't care whether they could write their own software to watch movies. (The key was leaked months ago.) This wasn't big news.

Now it's everywhere.

Is it just me, or is this DeCSS 2.0?