The key, Hex 09 f9 11 02 9d 74 e3 5b d8 41 56 c5 63 56 88 c0, was discovered months ago and has been distributed amongst netzines everywhere.

However stories where the key is mentioned have been attracting the attention of MPAA spooks. DMCA take down notices have been issued to sites like Spooky Action at a Distance and Digg.

The Digg users who published them have even had their accounts closed by mods.

But this has created a bit of war between users who have been working to keep the number in the public eye.

In the case of Digg, the entire front page comprised only stories that in one way or another were related to the hex number. You can also find HD-DVD song lyrics, coffee mugs, and shirts.

Google reports that there are 283,000 pages containing the number with hyphens, and just under 10,000 without hyphens. There's a song. Several domain names including variations of the number have been reserved.

That looks like a lot of take-down notices that the MPAA is going to have to issue. More here. µ