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Digg.com Attempts To Suppress HD-DVD Revolt
fieryprophet writes "An astonishing number of stories related to HD-DVD encryption keys have gone missing in action from digg.com, in many cases along with the account of the diggers who submitted them. Diggers are in open revolt against the moderators and are retaliating in clever and inventive ways. At one point, the entire front page comprised only stories that in one way or another were related to the hex number. Digg users quickly pointed to the HD DVD sponsorship of Diggnation, the Digg podcast show. Search digg for HD-DVD song lyrics, coffee mugs, shirts, and more for a small taste of the rebellion." Search Google for a broader picture; at this writing, about 283,000 pages contain the number with hyphens, and just under 10,000 without hyphens. There's a song. Several domain names including variations of the number have been reserved. Update: 05/02 05:44 GMT by J : New blog post from Kevin Rose of Digg to its users: "We hear you."
If you're one of the endless little "Slashdot is dead, go to digg" trolls that reply to stories every now & again, I (and the rest of slashdot) would like to say: "Fuck You".
Your wonderful little Digg isn't looking so wonderful now - is it?
In comparison to Digg's censorship, slashdot has the hex key as a story tag.
I don't think Slashdot editors are that clever.
09f911029d74e35bd84156c5635688c0
I got a 404 error the first time I checked this.
How Ironic.
Digg took a big hit to their credibility today. They underestimated the outrage caused by the banning of users and removal of stories. Perhaps they'll learn that the site is made by the users. Without diggers, there is no digg.
Hell is other people - Jean-Paul Sartre
The fortune cookie at the bottom of the page reads -
"Anyone attempting to generate random numbers by deterministic means is, of course, living in a state of sin." -- John Von Neumann
Indeed.
The harder you sqeeze, the more comes out.
0 11000000110010001110010100010000110111001101000100 01010011001100110101010000100100010000111000001101 00001100010011010100110110010000110011010100110110 00110011001101010011011000111000001110000100001100 11000000100000
MPAA Lesson of the day.
0011000000111001010001100011100100110001001100010
EMail: 0110001101100010010000000110001101110010 0110000101111010011011100110000101110010 0010111001100011011011110110
09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0
This is the funniest thing I've seen since reading the "Slashdot Trolling Phenomena" entry in Wikipedia.
Strange things are afoot at the Circle-K.
Today it's different for some reason. One of the managers posted a justification on the official blog:
Funny stuff.
Title says all ;-)
"It is our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities." -- Prof. Dumbledore
Notwithstanding the fact that most articles are either innacurate or stupid, they will IP ban anyone who says anything bad about their site. Digg is one step up from "myspace"
Also, you can get a perm ban from digg if you use the star of david as your "digg icon"... no kidding!
Digg actually posted a reply to the community on their blog here.
What I'm honestly curious about is this: Is this numeric string code copyrighted? Where is the copyright filed, if so? Or is it a trade secret? Do trade secrets need to be filed or declared somehow? Is a trade secret intellectual property that must be removed when a theatening (maybe DMCA) notice is sent?
I'm nowhere near understanding the complexities of the current intellectual property legal codes in the USA, let alone how they actually apply in this situation. All I see is hysteria.
This statement is solely an opinion. Kindly take it as such in all cases.
Wikipedia has chosen to speedy-delete the article and all similarly titled articles based on the hexadecimal number. I found the deletion review at this link. It seems like the only way left to get the article undeleted is to present good arguments there. I, for my part, have been blocked by another admin for posting my undelete comment. It looks like censorship is in season.
And quick to fall. I cannot believe how swift and concerted this response is. I bet the digg admins are kinda wishing they had, oh I dunno.... EDITORS?
I've been watching this develop tonight, and Digg has gone into meltdown, not so much in the technical sense but in the sense that the user base is in open revolt, posting stories containing the code and commenting on events over...and...over...and over. As quickly as one article is removed, two more appear, and the tone of them is getting angrier and angrier by the hour.
Just my opinion, but I don't see how Digg can come out of this with any credibility left. Was this ever about the DMCA? Perhaps in the beginning, but it's turned into a battle of wills between the Digg admins and its user base, and, even if the admins could somehow manage to magically obliterate every article on this subject, they're going to have a hard time explaining themselves to the user base, who are, by and large, mad as hell.
And to those who are, indeed, mad as hell, consider what you will do after this incident is over. Kevin and the other admins may indeed fear a lawsuit if they don't take these articles down. Is that wrong, or is the law that allows this possibility the thing that is wrong? It's easy to sit there and paste line after line of numbers, but what would you do in the face of a lawsuit, even if it it's a ridiculous lawsuit supported by a law crafted just for this kind of abuse? You're taking action now, but will you get organized to push for real change tomorrow, the day after, and the day after that?
Somebody created a free speech flag: http://www.badmouth.net/free-speech-flag/
"It is our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities." -- Prof. Dumbledore
... Oppression of an idea, thought or belief is the best way to get the news spread (see religion). It is the overcommercialisation of an idea which causes it to fade from popularity (see modern day rock music). The best thing that the music industry, or indeed the movie industry could do to stamp out piracy is to ignore it and release a superior product (I am more than willing to pay for a high quality product, provided I can do with it whatever I wish). Currently DRMed digital music and video is an inferior product at a higher price than what "the pirates" are producing, which is why the MAFIAA continue to lose market share to the Coallition of Regular Annonymous Pirates (CRAP).
Its like digg imploded from too much freedom... into a continuous fuzz of meaningless crap (basically like april fools day on the uncyclopedia.org). I CANT WAIT to see the next episode of diggnation!!!
As I said numerous times,
People don't seem to understand that this goes beyond a silly little hex key. The key has been out for months. A new one will come and it will also be broken. This is not about that. This is about consumers finally standing up against the bullshit being fed to them by media giants. They crossed the line today when they forced digg to censor user generated content, not only articles but also comments and somewhat related content.
As a consumer i am sick and tired of getting fabricated excuses as to why i can't play what I've bought wherever the hell i want. NO, i don't care if you keep making up the story that DRM is to protect yourself from piracy. I don't buy it. DRM will be broken no matter what. DRM is there to ensure your revenue stream by controlling where I can play the content. Now you go and censor my news source giving a bullshit excuse that a randomly generated hex number is some how your IP? You install rootkits in my computer, You stop me from using my content I bought the way I want? pretend to own _MY_ hardware? Enough of that bullshit.
This is a revolt against the greediness and blatant disrespect for the consumer that comes from the mpaa/riaa.
SAVE THE NUMBERS, SAVE THE WORLD. REMEMBER The 1st of MAY.
[alk]
Excuse me.
The MPAA (or whoever) is telling Digg to take down those stories.
They have the authority to do this thanks to the DMCA.
The DMCA is a law enacted by who? That's right, the government of the United States of America.
So who is threatening the people who run Digg with jail time? That's right, the United States of America.
How is that not censorship?
How we know is more important than what we know.
Yeah, screw Digg! Those bastards, censoring shit, trying to hide things, giving in to "The Man" and the fear of legal battles. Fuck them! Slashdot rules!
Hey, on a completely unrelated note, can anyone point me to that copy of book 3 of Scientology that was posted here a few years back?
kthnx.
If I knew the wedgies I gave you back in 6th grade would have resulted in this . . . I might have taken a moments pause.
At any rate, this is a parody of Allan Sherman's tirade against all-digit dialing, "The Let's All Call Up AT&T And Protest To The President March". By staggering coincidence, the original was inspired by someone posting it in on USENET in the .mp3.comedy group. Weren't me, although my parents turned me onto Mr. Sherman's parodies by giving me their vinyl original that they'd owned since before I was born.
By even more coincidence, you can sing it as either: "Let's all post the Processing Key and fuck AACSLA" March, for rather obvious reasons, or the "Let's all post To D-I-G-G and say 'fark you' to Kevin Rose" March, (on account of every single story on digg.com's front page, as the original poster already linked to in TFA)
By utterly unsurprising coincidence, and like every filk I write here, this parody is in the public domain, and you can sing it however you like, although in this case it'll probably be funnier if you keep the numbers the way they was written.
AACS VERSION:
It's the "Let's all post the processing key and fuck AACSLA!" march!
Watch their lawyers worry and fidget,
Cease and DE-sisting sixteen hex digits!
So let's all post the processing key and fuck AACSLA, march!
So protest! (so protest!)
Do your best! (do your best!)
Let us show them that we post in unity.
If they won't (if they won't!),
Change the rules (change the rules!),
Let's buy our movies from another monopoly!
Let's all post the processing key and fuck AACSLA march.
Let us wake their landsharks from slumber,
Get a pencil, I'll give you their number.
It's Nine, Eff-nine, One-one, Two, Nine-D,
SevenTY-four, Eee-three, Five-B... (dash!)
Dee-eight, four-one, five-six, Cee-five,
Sixty-three, fifty-six, eight-eight... (hyphen!)
And now that you're on the right road,
Don't forget to end with Cee-0h!
Here's to freedom and fair use! 09F9! 1102s!
Watch your HD-DVD! 9D74! E35B!
Let's keep that 16-byte key alive!
D841! 56C5! AACS is totally broke! 6356! 88C0! Hooray!
To arnezami's mental fiber,
We'll erect a triumphal arch!
For the "let's all post the processing key and fuck AACSLA!" march.
And since we're long (about 2 and a half months!) past the point that a parody of the AACS key wouldn't be complete without the
DIGG VERSION:
It's the "Let's all post To D-I-G-G and say 'fark you' to Kevin Rose" march!
Watch him worry, watch as he fidgets,
As his users post sixteen hex digits!
So let's all post to D-I-G-G and say 'fuck you' to Kevin Rose march.
So protest! (so protest!)
Do your best! (do your best!)
Let us show him that we digg in unity.
If he won't (if he won't!),
Change the rules (change the rules!),
Let's take our pageviews to Slashdot's company!
Let's all post to D-I-G-G and say 'fuck you' to Kevin Rose march.
Let us wake him up in his slumber.
Get a pencil, I'll give you his number.
It's Nine, Eff-nine, One-one, Two, Nine-D,
SevenTY-four, Eee-three, Five-B... (dash!)
Dee-eight, four-one, five-six, Cee-five,
Sixty-three, fifty-six, eight-eight... (hyphen!)
And now that you're on the right road,
Don't forget to end with Cee-0h!
Here's to freedom and fair use! 09F9! 1102s!
Watch your HD-DVD! 9D74! E35B!
Let's keep that 16-byte key alive! D841! 56C5!
AACS is totally broke! 6356! 88C0! Hooray!
To arnezami's mental fiber,
We'll erect a triumphal arch!
For the let's all post to D-I-G-G and say 'fuck you' to Kevin Rose march.
And don't make me deal with this "Your comment has too few characters per line (currently 35.7)", because it's a long pair of
This is NOT censorship.
Incorrect. Censorship is when someone censors you.
Censorship is a government telling someone what they cannot read, hear, see, or think.
Wrong. I can censor what my kids watch on TV, my work can censor my internet access, etc.
What you're thinking of is the first amendment.
There are shills on slashdot. Apparently, I'm one of them.
Something that nobody's explained, since this story broke:
Whose bright idea was it to use the same 128-bit symmetric key for every DVD ??
NB. Please don't mod this off-topic just because I said it wasn't.
LOAD "SIG",8,1
we slashdotters are honored by your honesty, and we hope you documented your feelings in your blog.
If you don't know what AltaVista is (was), get off my lawn.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streisand_effect
"Censorship is a government telling someone what they cannot read, hear, see, or think."
You might want to try that one again chief, the act of censorship isn't only carried out by governments. By your logic media private outlets couldn't censor information.
See the following to get a fucking clue:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Censorship
n. censor 1. A person authorized to examine books, films, or other material and to remove or suppress what is considered morally, politically, or otherwise objectionable.
tr.v. censored, censoring, censors
To examine and expurgate.
While they can do what they want on their own site, it is more a matter of credibility than anything else right now. The whole revolt isn't even about the HD-DVD key. What has people feeling burnt is the fact that Digg purports to be about free and open user-driven content in a democratic setting, and what we're seeing here is a cabal of admins who are subverting the entire process of the system to suit their own whims.
Now as I said, it's not even about the 128-bit key anymore. And it's not about the DMCA or its merits(or lack thereof). The problem goes much deeper than that, and the encryption key debacle was more of a catalyst for what the more perceptive Diggers knew was going on all along but never really had any proof of. See, it's not just any posts containing the number they're removing. The Digg admins are removing and banning any discussion on the topic, even legitimate discussions on the ramifications of censorship in the user-driven internet era. Quite a few legitimate and thought-provoking discussions got clobbered when the admins got ban-happy today.
They have unwittingly set themselves up as a prime example of what can go wrong when marketing dollars(it is being reported that the HD-DVD guys throw ad dollars at Diggnation) meet the voice of the people. It is now being said that the Digg admins are stepping in and removing "objectionable" content when it conflicts with the will of their advertisers or displays any anti-Digg sentiment. While I'm sure this is good business sense, it's a very ugly way of being outed as a shill and a fraud to your readers. Digg is supposed to be the underdog who fought the status-quo and beat overwhelming odds against "the system". Now people are finding out that Digg has become the system, and they're a bit disillusioned that their hero Mr. Rose is just like any other business man who is out to make a buck. But like I said, the admins of Digg are obviously free to do with their site as they see fit. But Digg is only as good as the people who contribute to it. Kiss them good-bye and you kiss Digg good-bye.
"People should be allowed to keep midgets as pets."
- Gov. Jesse Ventura
In order to get Dugg, you must first title your article with "Coolest ... you'll ever see!!!"
-Alex. http://bit.ly/1iVPtfA
"The founders of Digg.com - which has been rocked by an unprecedented user revolt over the release of an HD-DVD decryption code - accepted sponsorship from the organization behind HD-DVD last year." hmmm
My little Linux and tech blog
- "Digg's community is revolting!"
- "I know! And they seem pretty upset about something too..."
Does it make you happy you're so strange?
I'll agree the Digg community took a hit today, but only because it shows the mentality of its users. These are the same people that believe internet petitions actually do something.
You mean, like, did they finally arrive in China? Hard to say, but the culture is very similar.
Digg is trying to suppress information that is painted across the internet and can be found by a 3 year old with a simple Google search. I really have no idea what they hope to gain by this. Even if this is because they have HD-DVD ads on their site or they were contacted by a legal entity trying to remove the links all they have done is drawn more attention to it. So Digg has ruined their credibility and further publicized the key..... wow. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elephant_in_the_room
http://www.kubuntu.org/
I've been observing the revolt at digg throughout the day. The editors can no longer keep up with the posts. The entire digg front page (and most of the "Upcoming stories") is flooded with posts about the HD-DVD key.
Someone tried to create a Wikipedia page documenting the revolt, but that too was taken down.
Since AACS was broken 6 weeks ago, the MPAA and AACS LA have been sending out a flurry of DMCA takedown notices. However, as this example shows, the takedown notices seem to be delivered via USPS Express Mail. As mentioned, the current explosion has more than 300,000 pages mentioning the key (I don't know how many link to the Doom9 page). IIRC, Express Mail costs about USD $8 [usps.com seems to be off-line at the moment]. Sending out 300,000 notices at $8 a pop would inject $2.4M into the coffers of the United States Postal Service. Perhaps they would even roll back the rate increase that went into effect today [yeah, right].
Of course, delivering that many notices by physical mail would be prohibitively expensive, not to mention an ecological nightmare. The $2.4M would probably be better of spent combating the real pirates, rather than bloggers and video consumers.
The DMCA isn't one way, it's two way. Some random guy can say your post is infringing his copyright, and you can say he's full of it. At that point, the web board is no longer involved. If the random guy wants to take it to court, he can only attack you directly (and conversely).
We've had stories about this before.
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?>
/> /> /> /> />
<svg xmlns:svg="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" version="1.0">
<title>Freedom flag</title>
<desc>As ridiculous as it sounds, even numbers have become "intellectual property" that corporations can claim ownership
of.</desc>
<rect width="100" height="300" x="0" y="0" fill="#09F911"
<rect width="100" height="300" x="100" y="0" fill="#029D74"
<rect width="100" height="300" x="200" y="0" fill="#E35BD8"
<rect width="100" height="300" x="300" y="0" fill="#4156C5"
<rect width="100" height="300" x="400" y="0" fill="#635688"
<text x="410" y="275" font-family="Verdana" font-size="36" fill="white">+C0</text>
</svg>
Wait a sec, now there's new bad numbers? Oh, 4 8 15 16 23 42, your reign of terror is over!
The number you are looking for is 09f911029d74e35bd84156c5635688c0
Fark is actively censoring as well... recent headlines on redlit discussions: Don't bother submitting the HD-DVD passcode. It's against the FarQ, isn't going to be greenlit, and is against the law. Don't like it? Vote and OMG Admins just DELETED a post on Fark that contained a blatent violation of the FarQ and could have legal ramifications for a privately owned website. CENSORSHIP NDIT LGT GIS for "Whiny biatch"
A cheerful little bird is sitting here singing.
Yet as the grandparent post shows, there are those determined to believe only governments can censor, and there have been many cases where people have attempted to sue companies over first amendment rights. Censorship can happen between any two or more individuals, and you ONLY have rights when it comes to the Government.
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
Suggested methods of sticking it to the MAFIAA:
1. Write the number and short-short-version on chalkboards around campus (I plan to do this tomorrow).
2. Set an image of it as the background on public computers you use.
3. Start mass-mailings.
4. Post the number anywhere you can in creative ways.
because what the Digg users did to put the number on various posts on the Digg front page is exactly why government monitoring of communications of citizens will never net them the "terr'ists" messages. There are so many low tech ways to encode a message that can be broadcast in broad view of the public and still be coded that the government could spend billions or more man years trying to find them, never mind decode them. Some of those today included:
A song, a t-shirt, a commercial, blog title, html color coding scheme, a bad poem, street directions, website name, and many others...
This is EXACTLY why monitoring private communications will never stop covert communications. This is exactly why the DRM won't work, why the relative Patriot Act efforts will fail and why monitoring doesn't work. The fact that the bad guys know there is monitoring will ensure that they use something so covert that all of us will see it and not know it, which is BTW very LOW tech, so won't be caught by hitech monitoring systems.
Whatever you think of Digg users, they have demonstrated an important thing. When someone needs to communicate, censorship will not work, the DMCA will fail to stop it, the Patriot Act cannot prevent the damage done and no new laws will fix this basic failure of preventative control.
Any message that wants to get out will get out, be it a key, a program, or just a rebellious thought. Censorship does not work.
Sure, there are those who pedantically will tell me it seems to be working in countries like China, but even there I think all they have done is slow down the information flow rather than cut it off. If writers in China want to post to blogs, they can get someone in Sweeden to write / host a dtmf translation program that takes a phone call, translates the DTMF and posts the information to the appropriate blog site/account. This would bypass all the censorship efforts to date.
The plus side of this is that along the way, someone somewhere is going to find innovative ways to do things. My bet is that it will always be those that want to be uncensored that innovate most.
Support NYCountryLawyer RIAA vs People
It's not about this password, it's about not being able to do perfectly legal thing with the media we purchased.
It's about the fact that the DMCA only hurts the consumers, and is wrong.
It's about the fact that the Industry is using a cheesy, SOB method to avoid copyright expiration.
It is about the facts that the MPAA is abusing a privildge we the people, through congress, give them.
It is NOT about being able to distribute the content, it is not about copyright infringement at all.
The people who are the big violators are not hurt by this because they just make a press, or bit by bit copy of the media.
The MPAA needs to stop this and use the resourses to go after the big pirates. They guys the press 10,000 copies and then sell them. The nees to stop using extortion instead of the proper leag methods for dealing with pirates.
I am FOR limited copyright, but how they go about it is apalling, inulting, and spits on our legal system. At this point I hope they go out of business....hell, I wouldn't even mourn if piracy drove them completly out of business.
Another model will appear, and it will send a message the citizens can only be pushed so far.
It may be their media, but it's out culture. Historically, these things go very bad for the leaders at the time.
"This is why we elect individuals to lead. Because people behave like retarded sheep on crack."
Who elected the MPAA? Who said it was alright for them to call upon our police men whenever they want to to storm through peoples houses? Who voted for letting the MPAA search any computers they want for no reason?
People behave this way when there is an injustice, and it's a good thing.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
It may come down to how much /. wants to challenge any possible action by the HD-DVD association. Clearly, it's not copyrightable, so the only question is whether a pure number can fall under the anti-circumvention clauses of the the DMCA. Using your quote above, it's not "technology", it's not a device. Does it qualify? Probably it will take a trial to determine that.
The real "Libtards" are the Libertarians!
Excuse me, but there are companies out there that buy and sell information about you, me and everyone else. Can I go out and have all that information suppressed? That's *my* information, and yet, every supermarket, potential employer, car dealership, hospital, etc., gets to profit and make use about information about ME, and yet, I don't see a dime of that money.
Tell ya what. I'll agree not to pass around that NUMBER if every company agrees never to pass around my NAME, particularly to junk mail vendors and telephone marketeers.
Why can't *you* see that it's exactly the same thing?
If telephones are outlawed, then only outlaws will have telephones.
They did no such thing, they used their own computer, own time, own disk.... at no time did they break into anyone's house, computer....
... I own the paper AND the ink, just not the story.
I buy a DVD, I own the disk, the holes, the metal - the bits. The only bit I don't own is the actual art content.
To put it in the context of a book
I can choose to read the book backwards, skip every second letter - and even read the boring publication bits at the front - all legally.
So don't give me this crap that reading the bytes off a DVD I own is illegal.
EMail: 0110001101100010010000000110001101110010 0110000101111010011011100110000101110010 0010111001100011011011110110
Roses are #FF0000
Violets are #0000FF
All my encryptions
Are belong to 09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0
Fark's doing so is not ironic. This sort of thing is normal, to be expected, and other synonyms for "not news." Digg, on the other hand, is "...all about user powered content. Everything is submitted and voted on by the Digg community. Share, discover, bookmark, and promote stuff that's important to you!"
By reading this you acknowledge that you have read it.
Because the losers here are digg's devs.
First off Digg is a site for user content, but just as a note even a user content site can't allow just anything on their site. there's laws in the country and the best way to avoid crippling yourself is simple complying with them.
Essentially the fans in this case are killing digg because now the MPAA will either get pissed off and sue digg, or digg will get pissed off and close the site. Either way the only people the fans will hurt is digg, the site they frequent.
Btw the people telling Digg to stand up to the MPAA, shut the fuck up unless you got the money for their defense. Oh wait you arn't willing to pay millions for their legal fee? Digg is a site that's run for the fans, there's no huge cash pile of money hidden in the backroom. They arn't getting rich off Digg, they are just people who are creating a fan created news "blog" or link site. Asking them to stand up and fight for the right here is a joke as it will only cause them to close.
And don't think slashdot will stand up to the MPAA if it comes to it. I'd like to believe they would but I doubt it. I respect this site but I also understand the simple fact, the MPAA can bankrupt pretty much any site like this, and while we should fight against this, unless you have the money for the legal fund don't demand anyone fight it.
How we know is more important than what we know.
Imagine for a moment, a universe in which an organization regulates every word, every sound, and every thought of the public. No such a place should exist, but it does in the 09F911029D74E35BD84156C5635688C0 zone.
... .com.
... .com?
... .com.
..."
... w-wha..?!
Enter, with the scene of a man by the name of Jones talking to another man, named Jack.
Jones: This censorship has gone too far. I've lost my access to the world wide web.
Jack: Why is that?
Jones: I posted something on
Jack:
Jones:
Jack: I see.
Let it be known that even the utterance of this website's location is forbidden in this place, as this zone that is very foreign, and very restricted.
Jack: What did you post?
Jones: A comment to a story about the freedom of speech.
Jack: Was there something incriminating in your comment?
Jones: I just posted "Oh nine, eff nine, eleven,
Enter two men, both dressed in black suits, with equally pitch black sunglasses covering their eyes. Both men look identical.
First Man: Mr. Jones, please come with us.
Jones:
The men each grab one of Jones' arms, and proceed to drag him screaming out of the doorway to the room he and the other man were once sitting in. As Mr. Jones' screams finally die away, the two men accompany Mr. Jones back into the room.
Second Man: Mr. Jones, we appreciate your cooperation in this matter.
A small amount of drool leaks out of Jones' mouth, as the men turn away, and walk out of the door.
Mr. Jones, in another world, has become another silenced voice. However, this man is not as far away as it seems. For as many times as it has been portrayed amoung the media, the popular mass continues to be like Jones current voice, silent and dumbfounded. This reality of a world in which the utterance of a certain string leads to the permanent removal of one's rights may, however, not be as distant as it seems.
Actually it's February 11th.
J
One of the things I like about Slashdot is how they handled the Cult of Scientology thing. Slashdot complied with style. Cowards, by contrast, have no style.
As copyright owner of this comment, I authorize everyone to defeat any technological measure which limits access to it.
must be 09,F9,11,02,9D,74,E3,5B,D8,41,56,C5,63,56,88,C0
Future data archaeologists will be dumbfounded by this number and will no doubt ascribe great religious significance to it.
Excuse me, but please get off my Pennisetum Clandestinum, eh!
Merchandise!
http://www.cafepress.com/09f9
Long Live /.
I don't think people are "passing it around with the intent to circumvent a patented product'", they're passing it round because they've been told not to, and they feel that's unreasonable. Call it a campaign of civil disobedience. I wouldn't be surprised if the number of times it's been posted far exceeds the number of HD-DVD movies that have actually been sold.
Also, I'm not an IP expert, but I'm fairly sure you can't patent a password, and I would question the assertion that distributing one is illegal.
This sig is false.
I think the answer is staring you in the face: as a nation, the U.S. imports a lot of physical goods, but exports a lot of intellectual property. Therefore, we reward companies who chisel their foreign suppliers into squeezing their employees, because this results in cheap imports here in the States. Likewise, we punish IP 'theft,' because IP is one of the last things that we seem to be able to produce and sell.
Now, I'm no fan of the DMCA, because I think it causes more damage and economic loss, here in the U.S., than it can or will ever possibly create in new IP-export revenue. But the logic driving it, when you separate it from the implementation, isn't that hard to understand, at least from a certain point of view. Allow me to illustrate how I think many people see the problem:
When we set aside irrational feelings of American exceptionalism -- those warm feelings that politicians always play to, when they talk about the "American worker" being the "best in the world" as if it was self-evident -- it is not immediately clear exactly how our previous success over the past century [1], necessarily translates into continued success in the future. In short, although everyone likes to say reassuring things like "Americans have always been at the forefront of innovation!", those words ring pretty hollow -- it's not clear why we would continue to be. We're not smarter than everyone else, our education system basically sucks, and we have a culture that's increasingly anti-intellectual and in some cases bordering on non-secular.
What this boils down to is: in a fully globalized economy, it's not clear what areas the U.S. will have a comparative advantage in. We'll probably always be able to export some agricultural products, but agricultural products do not a first-world civilization pay for. Same with natural resources like coal and timber but we'll need them here eventually, so we'd just be selling ourselves down the river. So what do you have left, when you've outsourced everything that can be outsourced to lower-cost second- and third-world areas? I think Neal Stephenson was onto something: music, movies, microcode, and pizza delivery.
'Pizza delivery' is the remaining service-sector crap that can't be outsourced. Music and movies are 'cultural exports,' things that for whatever reason, have a certain cachet in the rest of the world, and so don't really fall victim to direct price competition with foreign competitors. And microcode [1A] -- even if we're not the best at that, either, we'll use our monopoly to milk the rest of the world pretty good for as long as we can. But we can only do that if we can get them to buy into the legal framework which lets you sell IP as if it were physical goods. Hence, the DMCA and other 'strong IP' laws.
All of this is just my rather long-winded way of trying to explain why so many people (people in government in particular) are hooked on strong IP law (including the DMCA, DRM, and anti-circumvention), and proprietary software: they see it as a way to ensure that the U.S. can still make money doing the only thing that we seem to be good at. It may not seem at first glance to make a whole lot of sense, particularly to non-Americans, but I've met a lot of fairly powerful people who are very, very nervous about where the New/Global Economy is headed, and how the U.S. is going to maintain its standard of living [2] in the future. If you're looking for a near-magic solution, which you are if you're a politician, grabbing onto intellectual property as the salvation of high-cost Western society probably isn't the stupidest thing you'll do all day.
[1] Much of which is attributable to having had the good luck not to get involved in any home-turf land wars (like Europe, which got flattened, some of it twice) and getting on board the capitalism bus early (unlike Asia, which is just coming around to this whole market-economy business).
[1A] I'm using "microcode" here to represent basically all IP-derived exports, which includes most pharmaceuti
"Ladies and gentlemen, my killbot features Lotus Notes and a machine gun. It is the finest available."
http://blog.digg.com/?p=74
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 hell, at least we died trying.
Digg on,
Kevin
Digg is officialy offline, the revolt suceeded!!
digg.com has been taken down.. 6:45 AM GMT
From the offical Digg blog, "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 hell, at least we died trying."
At this point it looks like look much like a PR move. In an attempt to make themselves look good, they're acting like they're decided to take a stand against The Man, when in fact they're just bowing to pressure. Besides the fact that they just literally couldn't continue enforcing the censorship without turning off the site, they seem to ignore the fact that they didn't just remove articles containing the hex code, but articles containing the story of their censorship!
Slashdot isn't making a big deal out of their lack of censorship, and they aren't issuing a war cry- but I can write F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0 without having to worry about my account being deleted, and that means more to me than some half-assed excuse.
Digg is attempting to shift the blame and rally a cause away from it, when it should be admitting that they all made a mistake and apologizing. Now its too late for them to gain the respect of their user base without a lot of long, hard work (if even that will be enough).
Digg went down!
just moments ago, I am astounded by the power of people.
Digg is currently down. This was the top of the page right before it went down.
http://blog.digg.com/?p=74 [digg.com]?
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 hell, at least we died trying.
Digg on,
Kevin
Did they put hard work and intellectual value into a randomly generated hexadecimal string? I don't think so either.
I think the point I'm making is valid -- if they want to claim copyright on a NUMBER, I should be able to claim copyright on my NAME (and trust me, my name is pretty unique). I'm tired of other people buying and selling my NAME. My NAME is my property. And since my parents are dead, that property is mine by proxy.
Either that, or I'll run out right now and copyright the number 12. And then issue DMCA takedown notices to every website, piece of software, TV show, and building elevator that uses the number which is my property.
If telephones are outlawed, then only outlaws will have telephones.
"Update: 05/02 05:44 GMT by J : New blog post from Kevin Rose of Digg to its users: "We hear you.""
From the post:
"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 hell, at least we died trying."
fuckin 'ey, Kevin!
110100 1101000 1101000 1100110 0 1101111 1101000 1100011 1
I feel bad for Kevin - I don't believe that anyone legitimately upset by this whole situation wants Digg to die. Unfortunately the moderators made a number of bad decisions that only made things worse. Perhaps they should've allowed one story on the topic and had everyone comment there. Keep that page up until they have a legitimate, hand delivered paper DMCA takedown request. Then users' anger would be focused where it really belongs (read MPAA).
With the moderators banning accounts and deleting posts, they took entirely the wrong approach, and are now suffering the consequences. Sadly, this may be a very, very hard lesson for Kevin / Digg.
When you create a social networking/commenting site, knowingly or not, you put yourself at the mercy of a large number of people who can be extremely volatile. Not a whole lot of difference between that and a good, old-fashioned mob of real people.
Here's hoping some good can come out of this whole unfortunate situation...
N.
"Nothing strengthens authority so much as silence." - Charles de Gaulle
I'll say one thing for all of this. Although I think it's garbage and wouldn't normally watch it, I'll certainly be interested to see the next episode of Diggnation and see what those two bozos have to say for themselves after their car-crash of a site exploded.
The main article made the key seem previously more popular on the internet than it actually is. Sure, you can do a search for it all spaced out separated by pairs, but after you get through the first hundred or so, most of the Google results are completely unrelated.
Separated by dashes, there are 222 non-duplicated results.
A search for the full key, without spaces, yields just 32 results.
To be honest, I'd say he's missed the point. The primary reason that his readers aren't unhappy isn't because of his team's moderating of the HD DVD code; at least, not directly. They're unhappy because the stories were taken down without explanation, users were apparently banned for simply doing what one is supposed to do on the site, and generally gave the impression that he had sided with them over us, which is never going to go down well.
If he'd just been more up-front and honest about what was going on, things would have gone much more smoothly. Sure, there would have been grumbling and a few irrepressible rebels would have posted the stuff anyway, but I seriously doubt that the reader base would have caught fire like it did. The biggest issue, IMO, was that it gave the impression (if not the reality) of a breach of trust, and trust is possibly the key thing to have in any sort of community.
Don't like gay PDA? Well, imagine how some gays feel about hetero PDA. (I'm straight, for the record). Don't like Pro-420 articles? Well, simple fact is pot never killed anyone - you pass out before you can overdose. But every years thousands of people die from ingesting perfectly legal liquor. Don't like people tweaking the corporate plutocracy by posting crypto keys? Well, then just roll over and let the corporations tel you what to think. Lord knows it's easier than doing it yourself. You're a Troll. A Class A Troll, and I am appalled that you've been modded so well. And when you get your knickers all bunched up, please think twice before posting like that - although, once would be a grand improvement.
RS
Shoes for Industry. Shoes for the Dead.
Beautiful! Kevin of Digg's Response has all the signs of an arrogant businessman who flipped the bird to his users, and was freaked out when they flipped the bird back. He even pulls out the "What about the Children Argument" claiming '(eg. linking to pornography, illegal downloads, racial hate sites, etc.)'. He then goes on to add 'If we lose, then what the hell, at least we died trying.' I mean, how childish. The guy made a bad call, and now he thinks he's Gandhi.
The thing these arrogant upstarts forget is when you create something and the public use it, the public own it. Sure legally you have 'title', but if you try and mess with it the public will be at your throat. They've invested their time and effort in building up your business, and they're now a part of it too. MMPOGs like EverQuest and Star Wars Galaxies have discovered it the hard way, to the point Raph Koster warns upstarts once others use it, you cease to own it. But the message still hasn't got out.
The smartest thing Kevin could have done is admitted a mistake and canceled the HD DVD Digg sponsorship to avoid conflict of interested. The smartest thing the board could do now is fire Kevin, before their investors see their hard earned cash peed up against the wall. The longer Kevin hisses and spits at his users, the more damage it does Digg. Digg dugg their own grave.
(pause) feel the power, boys!
I started a page for this, here. It contains ribbons that use 5 colors. The 5 colors are comprised of the "secret" hex code that is being suppressed. Interested parties are free to use these ribbons on their own sites. If you would like to link your ribbon to an explanatory page, I provide one here.
My Greasemonkey scripts for Digg &
Only three things are certain; death, taxes, and apocryphal quotations - Ben Franklin.
II'm pretty sure Sony Clie is gay. And I've always assumed my Palm V is hetero.
Underscore Pat.
It's not the fact that Digg did it, it's why and how they did it. For example:
1) Instead of complying with the law and then making a big announcement about how they had to do it even though they didn't want to, they apparently did it silently.
2) Instead of just deleting the posts that were being complained about - heck, instead of just deleting the posts that actually contained the key - they apparently deleted everything relating to the whole thing, including discussions about free speech, censorship and so on that most certainly were not in violation of any law.
3) Instead of just deleting the posts that were being complained about, they also deleted the accounts of the users who made those posts.
4) And while this may just be a rumour, some people have also said that instead of waiting for a proper legal notice, they just deleted those posts when they were asked to by a group who financially supports them in some way (advertising, sponsoring or whatever).
All this shows that the Digg founders had no integrity, no spine, no values. They're reversing their position now, but only because it's becoming abundantly clear that they'd have more to lose if they continued this way.
(To elaborate on that... contrary to what that blog post by the Digg founder says, there really is no risk that Digg will die; rather, they will wait until they actually get a legal notice the proper way, and they will only do what they're legally required to do, which will allow them to say "we tried what we could, but the law is the law". This ultimately will let them keep their community, and in fact may strengthen their reputation, as it creates a new "us vs. them"; instead of "us-the-community vs. Digg", it's now "us-the-community-and-Digg vs. the *AA/DVDCCA/etc". If they continued as they did, on the other hand, they would risk alienating their community; not something that would likely kill them, either, but it'd mean less income and less significance, at least.)
So that's the gist of it. Nobody's upset that they comply with the law (that's what they have to do, after all); what people are upset about is the lack of integrity that shows here.
And from what I hear, there's been grumbling on Digg about censorship and sucking-up to big business for quite a while already, but without there ever having been any real proof, so this may well just have been the final straw.
butter the donkey
First, HD-DVD is/was losing the format war, BIGTIME. So, who is to say that the HD-DVD consortium didn't conveniently "leak" the key in hopes that millions of geeks would run out and buy HD-DVD players? If I were a big movie studio contracted to the HD-DVD format, I might even go along with this depending upon how many of my movies were released under the "leaked" key.
We're all being duped, I think. This whole thing is just a giant publicity stunt on the part of the HD-DVD consortium. Combine this with WalMart deciding to go HD-DVD-only, i think the tables may very well have turned to HD-DVD's favor.
What's funny is that Slashdot fucking forgot about theri own disclaimer at the bottom of EVERY FUCKING PAGE that says "All trademarks and copyrights on this page are owned by their respective owners. Comments are owned by the Poster."
Way to go, Slashdot.
Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
APK quotes people (including myself) without context and should not be trusted. Just thought you should know.
Oh, give me a break! The guy is trying to make himself out as some kind of hero just because his customers revolted and forced him to reverse himself on a decision he never should have made in the first place. His "We'd rather go down fighting than bow down to a bigger company" bullshit is about as sincere as Michael Richards' day-after-I-got-into-trouble dedication to racial justice.
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
"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."
Nevermind that this should have been the case all along, and the fact that it wasn't is deeply disturbing.
Yet another reason to avoid the sewer that is Digg.
I don't know what kind of crack I was on, but I suspect it was decaf.
Although I agree with the bulk of your statement, I'd be careful about saying things like "simple fact is pot never killed anyone - you pass out before you can overdose". Can you honestly tell me that no one has ever died from pot laced with something nasty? Or was so stoned they walked into traffic? Or crashed their car?
It's one thing to argue from the basis of individual rights, or at least social and medical equavalence with alcohol. But some of the arguments for legalization of pot start to sound like marijuana is the wonder substance, with no side effects and no chance of abuse. Riiiggghhht - let me introduce you to some of my stoner friends from high school, and see what they even remember from 2 years of 3x/day. And what's with the "hemp will save the world" thing? I always get the feeling that, when Woddy Harrelson starts spouting off on hemp, it's simply a catspaw to get into marijuana legalization. Great - but lets be honest about our real goals, shall we?
"As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly." A. Carlson
This is an excellent point in favor of legalizing drugs. How often is there contaminantion of a batch of Jim Beam that makes people sick or kills them? Has there been any since Prohibition ended? But moonshine during Prohibition was often dangerous - homemade stills were much more likely to leech lead into the final product. Much like the 'but people steal to buy drugs', it's not a good arguement for keeping it illegal.
Now, the driving/walking under the influence arguement is different - I would believe that more people would die that way. But if other recreational drugs were illegal, would alcohol remain as popular? I'm not sure, really. (IIRC, results from Amesterdam seemed to indicate no - roughly the same total number of people would be getting stoned or drunk, it just shifted the share about.)
Have you been touched by his noodly appendage?
One technicality, but an important one:
The law doesn't matter in that case - it just means he can't get sued. His sponsors can still pull their funding[...]
Unfortunately, nothing means you can't get sued. As one of my lawyers is fond of saying, "They can sue you for anything." The law decides whether or not you win, but there can be an awful lot of pain and expense between getting sued and winning.
And the summary has to say "Title says it All"
Rather than complaining here on /. about "censorship" on Wikipedia, you can appeal in various talk pages about the topic.
/. posts about this have several useful links for such an article), I can't see that the article would be rejected. Or that its removal would be as controversial as you are making it out to be.
I think the main issue is that the number you are referring to here is not really a legitimate article name, and that a proper encyclopedia article about this topic can be done in a number of ways that doesn't necessarily use this number as the name of the article. Still, I don't see why it is a big deal to use the number in a redirect.
This number is not being "censored" in the same way the Digg was doing it, and it certainly is not controvercial on Wikipedia at the moment, other than perhaps a couple of over-zealous admins. I think you are making a mountain out of a molehill here in your attempt to attack Wikipedia.
Make a real article about this topic, and don't just complain about censorship when you can't write English worth a damn. If you think you can string two or more words together in a coherent fashion, and can dig up some legitimate sources for what the whole controversy is about (the
I think it's also a matter of degree. People who constantly use mooshy pet-names, whether gay or straight, can be annoying. People heavily sucking face in public, annoying. A couple holding hands together never really bothered me, regardless of their orientation.
What really bugs me goes beyond PDA though, it's when you get to have a parade, with people wearing nothing but chains, with a giant phallic balloon that squirts. I'm fairly sure it wouldn't be acceptable for straight people, so why is it for straight people.
Around here, the local Gay & Lesbian society of the city of Kelowna petitioned to have funding for a parade. The answer they got back was fairly reasonable and straightforward: such an event would only promote the interests of a minority, and thus should be privately funded and not use taxpayer dollars. They weren't denied the right to the parade, just to fund it from public purse-strings. However, it went to litigation, and from my understanding the city was basically forced to fund the event.
This happens a lot with minority groups or events, because many of these groups have a vocal element which tends to have a persecution complex. I've seen it on slashdot, for example here where a slashdotter indicates that victims of orientation-based bullying should get a special precedence.
Again, this is just the current example, there are plenty of other situations. One of my best friends has a cousin who complained loudly of discrimination. He claimed that he had problems finding work and was looked down on because he was Native (which, locally, is somewhat the equivalent at times to being a person of colour in the US). As my friend pointed out to him: "dude, you look as white as me, and the only reason anyone knows you're native is because you bring it up all the time. And people don't like you because you start fights and steal cars"
The point is that the grandparent it right, to an extent. Many people don't have a problem with group X. They do end up having a problem when group X pushes their own agenda into everyone else's face, or when it colours your point of view on every issue. I have friends who are native. Some aspects of their lives are coloured by their culture, and I can respect that. I have friends/relatives that are gay, and again I have respect for how it affects their lifestyles in both positive and negative ways. I don't mind at all being involved the activities of said groups, but I would if they started pushing it upon me. The problem is when the person becomes the category, and assume they must live their lives thus.
I think it's much better to - if you have the opportunity - live life in a sane and normal manner. This means that you don't need to shout from the rooftops, unless a major issue is at hand. It also means that you can reasonably advocate your position. Some people have to spend every minute shoving their lifestyle in everyone else's face, when we are just trying to live our own, which in the end lessens your cause rather than furthers it. So by keeping things down at the level of "advocate" or "spokesperson" rather than "zealot", perhaps everyone can show a bit more tolerance.
Oh, and for the record, there are cases when an uprising is warranted. Rodney King, being fired based on orientation, and many others, but these are specific times and events.
hex2dec 09F911029D74E35BD84156C5635688C0
ans =
1.325627888798946e+37
What about this?
hex2num 09F911029D74E35BD84156C5635688C0
ans =
1.273668854538564e-260
(Disclamer, I do not live in the U.S and I am not a lawyer.) The hex code cannot be copyrighted. It is also useless with out the tools to use. With out the necessary software to use the hex code, it is just a number that doesn't do a dam thing.
1 101000000000000000
In this case the encryption manufactures are clearly abusing DMCA law by demanding take down of the hex code, witch they have no copyright on, they also cannot call it a tool to break the hddvd / blueray encryption, because it isn't one. At least not the hex code alone. The best play for the people how get those take downs is to file a counter order (or what it is called) in accordance with the DMCA law and turn the game on the encryption manufacture. Old fashion riots are also good way to send a message, online or in the real world. It doesn't matter.
It is also important for the big corps to release that our culture is based on sharing, land, water and so on. Music, movies goes into that also. Because if we didn't share, we would be at war with each other all the time.
I live in a country where DMCA law do not apply so they can't threatend me with it.
Hex: 09F911029D74E35BD84156C5635688C0
Also, here is the code in Decimal and Binary.
Decimal: 218497016402258850000
Binary: 1011110110000100000101010110110001010110001101010
That was a superb essay. I might print that out to hand to people, and I wish I had mod points for you.
By all means feel free to distribute; consider it under the GFDL if you'd like to edit it.
One of the problems I see with the American future is that two of those products -- music and movies -- are to a large extent dependent on the health of the country in general. If/when things start to turn really sour and we don't have as much money as a country, we're not the glamour spot of the world, then our culture will no longer be a defining one and our movies and music will be relevant only to us. I think the long-term viability of entertainment is based on the long-term viability of the culture. So that reduces us to exporting natural resources -- of which we still have lots -- or reacquiring manufacturing capabilities once our economy has slowed to the point where we can do that at the same price as third-world nations.
I agree; and in fact this is one of the reasons why I think the position I outlined above is a bit shortsighted. Hollywood and the music industry are only able to export cultural products because 'Americana' in general carries a certain cachet in most of the world; if the perception of America as a nice/free/rich place slips, then over time, the popularity and marketability of those cultural exports will slip as well. (I think this is one of the reasons why the Bush administration is very unpopular among the Hollywood set -- they're dependent in large part on our image in the international arena in order to export their products.) And 'microcode' (which includes not only software but also pharmaceutical research and other IP) is dependent either on really being the best in the field -- which is tough, because our educational system is terrible at the hard sciences -- or on various forms of vendor lock-in, which are probably not stable in the long run.
However, the solutions to these problems are very, very hard, and they involve really taking a look in the mirror that most Americans -- and certainly most politicans -- would rather not do. Nobody wants to do it, both because it's fundamentally depressing: for starters, you have to throw away all the irrational exceptionalist garbage that says we'll somehow magically succeed no matter what, because we're just that damn cool (or blessed by God, or whatever), and beyond that, there are a whole lot of industries that just can't be reasonably expected to continue in a fully globalized market, and are going to disappear. Nobody wants to tell a large section of the workforce "I'm sorry, but you just really cost way too much for what you do, and nobody's going to pay you to do it anymore."
And even if you get past that, then you run into the hard issues about why we're failing to remain competitive; and IMO there are some serious cultural issues at work that need to be changed. A large part of America is borderline non-secular and strongly anti-intellectualist -- this is pretty deeply ingrained in our culture (and has not, historically, been a bad thing), but is probably not helpful if you're trying to find ways of leapfrogging the Chinese and Indians and remaining on the forefront of technological development purely on merit.
I don't have any cute solutions or dogma to push; I don't think there's any easy way out or any free lunch. But I think that in order to reasonably oppose laws and stances that seem to be bad or counterproductive (the DMCA, etc.) it helps to first understand the underlying feelings that cause people to support it.
"Ladies and gentlemen, my killbot features Lotus Notes and a machine gun. It is the finest available."