Lessons to learn from Facebook Secrets - can you digg it?

It would appear that Facebook Secrets, the blog that posted some of Facebook's source code (we blogged about that here), has been taken down by its host Blogger (owned by Google) under the logic that it violated the DMCA "safe harbour" conditions ruling. As Mike Arrington at TechCrunch points out, it is not clear whether this argument is valid, but c'est la vie.

Facebook’s statement on the matter came down to “it offers no useful insight into the inner workings of Facebook” and “the reprinting of this code violates several laws.” We disagreed on both points - the leak provided information to potential hackers as to potential security holes, and the fact that Facebook accidentally released the code themselves on their site may have made it very difficult for them to claim protection under the law.

That being said, it’s unlikely the anonymous author of the blog would be around to defend his/her position.

Facebook Secrets has reformed itself as Facebook Secrets Again showing the correspondence between itself and Blogger. There are some useful learnings here:

Firstly, we would concur with TechCrunch, its far from certain that the DMCA rulings - or any rulings in fact - are really admissable when code is spilled into open forums by the organisation that created it, involuntarily or no.

Secondly, it is clear that unless the blogger is prepared to contest such an action, it will happen - neither Blogger, nor Google, its parent, were in this case prepared to argue the niceties of the matter.

Thirdly - a corollary to the above - if you want your blog to stay up in adverse circumstances, don't put it where a Big Boy legal team can easily get at it's host company or their owners.

A few months ago a similar thing happened when Blu-Ray HD-DVD code hacks were reprinted all over Digg, and initially Digg tried to take it down but a grassroots rebellion made them U turn and vow to go down fighting. As far as we know (I looked a few minutes ago) Digg is still standing, (most of the legal eagles on blogs thought Digg would win any action) - and if anything the manufacturers possibly had a stronger case, as they had clearly not released their own IP into the public domain, and damages were probably easier to prove.

In this case one supposes that anyone who wants a copy of this code already has one, so its not clear what has been achieved, as Blogger (not Facebook in this case) has now left themselves open to a countersuit from any digital freedom group wanting to make a reputation for itself.

We await new developments with interest....

Postscript...if you look for the offending code in the caches, its still there.....

Update....nope, Digg has now also taken it down it would seem (can't get an image but here it is). Interesting that they would stand up to Consumer Electronics behemoths but not Facebook.