Google deletes music blogs over copyright infringement.
The blog-I-sphere is a fruitful place on Google. Or at least it used to be. You could simply go to Google. Click blogs, click say….The Beatles and you could see articles and pictures by fans that blogged Beatles. Many of the articles would provide a link to a download site where you can get music.
Arthur Lee once said “it’s all about money”, and he’s right. Google surely is being pressured from above to clean up it’s act because copyrighted material has been easily available to steal through their “Blogger” network for a very long time. I’m sure someone used the word “sue” somewhere.
The outrage however, involves the deletion of said blogs and the Constitution. Google however does provide its service free of charge and because of that, it’s hard to say they don’t have the right. They’re not eliminating the content, just the access.
So back up your files is one lesson here. Consider paying for and maintaining a domain name instead of going through a free service. People can be outraged, and honestly it is sad. Lots of very good work was lost and Google certainly has some egg on it’s face over this. It’s still miles better for them than facing litigation.
Bloggers that don’t link to other sites probably have nothing to worry about. I would still back up my data though. Many sites that provided links to music were actually legally there through an arrangement between the blogger and the music makers. So it’s even more unfortunate that Google got out a big black paint brush instead of doing a better job at contacting these customers.
Music sharing on the web has gone unstoppable anyway, as remote servers can pop up anywhere in the world and host peer to peer sharing. There are too many of them to track down, and like nomads they are incredibly mobile. Music and movies are whizzing from station to station free of charge as we speak. The blogs are a symptom and not the problem.
Based on the Twitter feeds, this knee jerk reaction by Google is going to cost them some customers.