A seemingly innocent string of 16 paired alphanumeric characters launched an all-out revolution yesterday on one of the favorite hangouts for internet aficionados, Digg.com. The characters, you see, are the top-secret encryption code used to copy-proof HD-DVDs.

Digg, founded by Kevin Rose, the former host of the late and lamented television show TechTV, is a site on which members can recommend stories from the digital world. Other users, by their digs (votes), move the story up the ladder of recommendation.

On Monday, the hacked code began to show up in posts. Digg CEO Jay Alderson filed a message explaining to the Digg community that the site was going to censor such posts rather than risk being shut down for copyright infringement. Then all hell broke lose. Over the next 24 hours, seemingly hundreds of angry diggers bombarded the site with cleverly disguised iterations of the code.

Yesterday evening Digg did any about face. In a bold and possibly suicidal post, Rose told the Digg community that the site would no longer pull posts referring to the code, thereby resigning itself to whatever consequences may come.

Such a public confrontation over a product of great importance (i.e., profit) to the entertainment industry might be the catalyst for a renewed debate about digital intellectual property rights. It might also prompt draconian penalties. One thing is for sure; this is one piece of turf Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) won't be fighting for. Stay tuned.