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CEO Jay Adelson sparked a firestorm in the Digg community yesterday with a blog post explaining why the site was removing links to an HD-DVD hacking site. Citing the company’s terms-of-use clause, he told users that Digg would not stand for posts that infringe upon intellectual property. After eight hours of outright revolt among users, founder Kevin Rose put an end to the mutiny by reversing the decision. He wrote: “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.” A couple things struck me about this rapid chain of events. First, Adelson and Rose seem to be coming from opposite sides of the issue. Given how often the founders of startups and CEOs part ways on ideological issues, I wondered whether the incident indicated a growing schism in the company. Second, it’s all well and good to stand up for the rights of Digg users to determine what’s Digg-worthy, but at some point, authority has to look out for the best interest of the group. Is it really smart to follow your users off a cliff? So, I put in a call to Adelson to get his take. The Browser: Who made the call to remove the HD-DVD hacks? Adelson: This was really painful for us to do. We got legal advice, and they told us it was a good idea. Then the users spoke, and they spoke very loudly. We got hundreds and hundreds of submissions. After what was basically an all-day meeting, watching this go on, we made the decision that we were aligned with the users. The Browser: Kevin Rose’s post sounded pretty ominous. What would you say the chances are that this escalates into legal action against Digg? Adelson: I think that there is a risk. We understood that risk when we posted Kevin’s post. What’s ironic is that during the event, a lot of users pointed at Digg, Inc., and said ‘You guys are becoming what you were built against.’ That couldn’t be further from the case. This issue aroused the passions within the employees themselves. We understand that it could lead to a big lawsuit. We understand that this could be end of Digg. Do I believe that risk is very high? Ireally don’t know. The [DVD hack] information is in the public domain; it has been for quite a while. But it’s really not about the legal interpretation. It’s about what we believe in. Kevin’s point, that we’re not going to compromise our values, is an important message. The Browser: It’s interesting that you wrote the original post, explaining why Digg would remove the links, and Rose wrote the reversal. What should I read into that? Is this another case of a founder and a CEO parting ways? Adelson: You gotta understand that Digg is very small. Kevin and I worked to start the company. I came on officially a few months after the prototype launched. We’re buddies. This comes from our hearts, and in this situation, we were 100% in sync the entire time. Having been an entrepreneur who started a company and saw what you’re describing happen in other companies, I can assure you that the environment in Digg is the exact opposite. What I love about the web community and the content community that Digg is in, is that the businesses are in the the hands of the entrepreneurs now. There’s no sort of old, white-haired community that comes in and takes over anymore. The venture backing we have is so different than it was in the late 90s. Without the IPO craze, the pressures are different. The Browser: Still, your investors must be concerned that the inmates are running the asylum. How do you give your users freedom while protecting the long-term viability of the company? Adelson: It’s not a simple process. If we just put the users in charge and that was it, you’d have chaos. Our job is to empower the users in such a way that, collectively, the community makes sense of the information out there. That’s true of the technology, the user interface, the business decisions. The content on Digg is absolutely in the power of the users, and the editing is in the power of users. Increasingly, that will be even more true, because we’ll be giving them even more tools that give them more transparency and more power. The trick is to empower the people to an end that is not chaos. Other sites looking at this situation should see it as proof that you can give power to the users to positive ends. It works. You should not run away from it. We’ve been passionate about this from the beginning. The Digg users hijacked the site from that day we launched, and it’s been a love affair ever since. Posted by jeffobrien 5:16 pm 15 Comments
 | Add a comment LONG LIVE THE DIGGNATION! Posted By jared l. - from malaysia : May 3, 2007 10:33 pm
It’s just a simple hex NUMBER! Last time I checked you can’t copyright, trademark, or patent a number. I do applaud Digg for finally doing the right thing and letting the users post it. Posted By PPNSteve, Sacramento, CA : May 3, 2007 7:45 pm
there is a serious current moving through the lastest soc net start up community and culture, and DIGG CEO adelson touches on it here in this quote from your interview. i’d love to see coverage from you of the players in that arena. Posted By ron connor princeton nj : May 3, 2007 4:54 pm
As a digg user myself I was surprised by the decision to remove the code content, however I do believe it was thought to be in our community’s best interest. Digg is a great internet community and I’d like to see it continue in the future. I think Kevin and Jay have done some really good things at Digg. Posted By Anonymous : May 3, 2007 2:57 pm
Interesting, Posted By Roman Pinzon-Soto, Dallas, TX : May 3, 2007 2:46 pm
I commend the Digg founders for trying to maintain a balance between protecting the environment their users enjoy and the freedom of speech the users wish to have. I find it interesting that the users start lashing out at the success of Kevin and Jay, the people who built, maintain and expand the playground the users threw their “sellout” tantrum in. Children rarely enjoy the structure parents provide for them but it keeps a roof over the brat’s head. Posted By Alex, Nashua NH : May 3, 2007 2:16 pm
Laws and lawyers change; your reputation among your peers for sticking to your word stays with you forever. Jay and Kevin know that if the AACS lobby takes ‘em down, their sheep would follow them to a new venture (hopefully in due enough time for the community to drill the foolishness of the DMCA into their lawmakers’ heads). They’re between a rock and a hard place to be sure, but the entrepreneurial spirit of the Valley would nearly ensure the Concept That Is Digg won’t die - it would just pick up, move, and undergo cosmetic surgery. Ultimately, *that’s* why they changed their minds on thie issue. Posted By F. Snertz, Ann Arbor, MI : May 3, 2007 2:13 pm
I agree with Jay Adelson’s original decision not to post codes that hack another company’s “trade secrets”. I think it took a great deal of integrity for Digg to do that. Now they are being forced to play to their subscribers requests, which is understandable- however a major movement by Alex Jones and his sites infowars and prison planet attacked Digg calling this a censorship issue! Is clearly was not. Digg did not want to promote stealing. Oh yeah, when I posted a response on Jones’s sites with links to information which discredits him- my post was removed within 10 minutes. Talk about calling the Kettle Black! Posted By Darrell Kern, Los Angeles : May 3, 2007 2:01 pm
 I would like to think we do not live in an anarchy - if Digg founders feel that posting something is NOT in the best interest of their company, yet allow readers to dictate to them, then they have no mission. What I have heard about Digg lately is not good… Posted By charlie43 : May 3, 2007 1:16 pm
I for one am actually happy with Digg’s decision. And even more impressed by Rose and Adelson. It’s very difficult to see something you built be taken down. Posted By Anonymous : May 3, 2007 12:21 pm
 It’s a risky decision, I guess. Posted By mattgunn : May 3, 2007 11:40 am
 Gotta admit that I’m rather surprised that Digg listened to their users. They seem to have a history of not doing so in the past. Posted By drmike : May 3, 2007 10:48 am
There have been comments on Digg for a long time worrying about how the flavor of Digg would change if they sold the thing - turns out they didn’t even need to selll the site, they’re already corporate stooges. Posted By Xian, Rolla MO : May 3, 2007 9:44 am
Interesting interview. It seems like the Digg team was between a rock and a hard place on this one. If they bowed to their lawyers demands it would have meant the end of their website as well. Now they’ll just have to wait and see if the copyright lawyers try and take them down. Posted By Dave, New York NY : May 2, 2007 6:32 pm
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I think IP infringement only comes when we are trying to break a innovation NOT monopoly or greedy protection and I believe Music and Movie are two industries who are looting people on the name of IP.