Digg played host to the most notable recent cyber revolt, where the removal of stories that included an HD-DVD encryption key prompted nearly 48 hours of non-stop reposting of the number. At one point the key, which allows you to unlock copy-protected high definition movies, was referenced in nearly every story on the homepage.

In response to the flood of stories, Digg CEO Jay Adelson posted to Digg the Blog at 1pm on May 1st that “in order for Digg to survive, it must abide by the law,” implying that stories containing the encryption key would continue to be removed, because they infringe on copyrights and create a massive liability for the company. However, the firestorm continued, and at 9pm the same day, the company officially changed course. This time, Digg founder Kevin Rose posted to the company blog, declaring “… 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.” Over the next few days, postings of the encryption key subsided, and users returned to digging stories they felt worthy of the Digg homepage.