On April 30, 2007, a blogger named "Rudd-O" published the encryption key for HD DVDs and asked readers to share it widely. Knowledge of this numeric key value allowed users to bypass digital rights management (DRM) and copy HD DVDs that previously could not be duplicated. News media reported on this development and Digg, a news aggregator and social media website, provided a way for users to vote on stories they felt were most newsworthy. Votes by 15,000 Digg users drove an article about the encryption key to the front page of the site.
