Ironically, the ban would create something like the Streisand effect for Bitcoin generating an awareness for entire new demographic groups and new classes of society.

FORBES: Government Ban On Bitcoin Would Fail Miserably

Thanks to Digg's rebels, the HD-DVD encryption code has become another victim of the "Streisand effect, " an increasingly common backlash that occurs when someone tries to muzzle information on the Web.

FORBES: The Streisand Effect

They had quite clearly never heard of the Streisand Effect, the idea that attempting to prevent someone from disseminating information on the internet just makes everyone decide to look out for that very information.

FORBES: Martha Payne and the Value of Social Media: When We Become Aware That Others Share Our Opinions And The Streisand Effect

But what Streisand and others fail to realize, says Michael Masnick, the tech consultant and writer who named the Streisand effect in his blog, Techdirt, is that the rules of privacy and information control have changed.

FORBES: Magazine Article

As for Bankston, he was happy to see Digg's users rebel last week in what he calls "a great flowering of civil disobedience, " and he says it should serve as a warning to future censors about the power of the Streisand effect.

FORBES: The Streisand Effect

Geeks cite it as the latest example of the "Streisand Effect, " a phenomenon named for Barbra Streisand, who unwittingly spurred Internet users to download aerial photos of her Malibu mansion after unsuccessfully suing a photographer in 2003 to have the pictures taken down.

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