The Streisand Effect, intentional?
Anybody that has been on the web any more than a few days knows the more you attempt to suppress something, the more attention it gains, bringing us the Streisand Effect, name by TechDirt after a court case in which Barbara Streisand attempted to get photos of herself removed from sites only to increase their popularity.
This brings us to yesterday’s fiasco. AACS LA has attempted to all references of their decryption code from any site that just merely linked to it, including Google (pdf).
Now we have to think about this one. Thinking back to CSS, the decryption schema used by DVDs, you would think the market has learned their lesson. MPAA were the fore runners of the cease-and-desist letters, sending them to sites with any reference to CSS (Wikipedia: Universal v. Reimerdes). What happened? As you can guess, the news coverage of the lawsuit gained massive attention.
This brings us to AACS, the decryption schema used in HD-DVDs. You have to wonder, did AACS LA do their homework? If they did, they would know three things: 1) HD-DVD is falling in popularity due to PlayStation 3’s included Blu-Ray drive. 2) Doom9.org cracked the HD-DVD key several months ago. 3) Any attempts to sensor the internet has always resulted in gained popularity.
Three three factors combined into one makes you wonder something — was this an intentional act of the AACS LA to promote the HD-DVD format? Far fetched, I know, but anything is possible. Their lawyers cannot that stupid not know the consequences of their actions.
