Elbows Music Blog Community

Even if I do get my posts back I'll still be looking at a wordpress migration weekend.

Thank goodness I transferred all my posts to a test blogger blog a couple weeks back. I should be able to import my 4 years of back pages without too much trouble.

Damn Bill - as shitty as this is, what a blessing to have (most of) that stuff backed up! If you need any help, I'll do what I can - just drop me an email.

Hot damn... happened to Poptarts too!

And to Masalacism!

this really sucks. :(

Here's the kicker. Wanna read my last violation? Here it is:


We'd like to inform you that we've received another complaint regarding your blog (http://irockcleveland.blogspot.com/). Upon review of your account, we've noted that your blog has repeatedly violated Blogger's Terms of Service (http://www.blogger.com/terms.g). Given that we've provided you with several warnings of these violations and advised you of our policy towards repeat infringers, we've been forced to remove your blog.

Thank you for your understanding.

Sincerely,

The Blogger Team

---

Notice how there's no mention of who filed the claim and what post triggered the claim? Care to guess whether or not I was notified about google's stance towards repeat infringers?

It is like at the very least they could leave a text only version of your blog as "intellectual property", etc, etc. I understand a blog appearing as if you have broken some copyright somewhere, somehow - but without telling you it is just harsh. It is like just sitting there and the police coming in and arresting you and saying you had done something illegal at some point in your life without any clue to when and for what.

Devil's advocate - is this situation (as a basic overview) like getting arrested for being stoned in public (under the influence or something similar)? I mean a lot of people smoke, it is pretty much accepted as norm in much of the public view and is argued as no harm to society by many - but still technically illegal?

EDIT - no finger pointing here at all, especially to Bill - I am very sure I have crossed copyright lines on numerous occasions! Wait, did I just admit that?

Yeah it's the out and out delete with no reasoning that makes this particularly bad.

@Slowcoustic - not quite sure your stoning analogy works here. The illegality of it maybe (although one is mostly civil (copyright infringement) and the other criminal (drugs)), but if you're caught smoking weed you know you've been caught for that last time. Busted on the spot. They haven't been watching your actions over the past three years and decided enough is enough - time to bring you in. I suppose three strikes is similar apart from you have no idea how many strikes you get.

I just find it particularly disappointing when someone is slammed for posting something they've been told is cleared, yet Blogspot is chock-full of 100% illegal, full album download blogs that have been up for YEARS. The idea that Google is unaware of those blogs is just preposterous.

@ Tsuru - I don't think GvB will just disappear, just don't think so - I guess they seem too large, but that should make no difference...
@ Sean - no frickin' kidding!!! I admit to visiting them, but seriously how do they get away with that??

@ Tim - yeah, I agree the analogy is a bit off! Maybe more like visiting your friends house and then they kick you out because you were using their favourite toy or something totally out of the blue, that is just an over reaction. Especially now after seeing the Google "support" post by Bill had with all his emails with permissions from labels, etc!!!!!!

Wordpress will be next I'm sure - it just might take a bit longer...

@SC.... yeah, my guess is GvB will be juuuust fine.

Good point. If your host gets a DMCA complaint, they will act on it. So... be careful out there!

Yeah, I was unceremoniously deleted from my first host for similar reasons, back in about 2006 or so. 

Bluehost has been good on such counts from what I hear. I did have a conversation with Hostmonster about some files I had up because a twerp lower down the line in tech support wouldn't help me until I got clearance from ToS folks. It was all fine as soon as I described what I was doing. And I take my mp3 files down every 3-4 weeks, I think that helps, dunno. I have my blog on Bluehost and my mp3 files on Hostmonster. The whole cost is less than what I pay in coffee and toll fees to IKEA on an annual basis :p

the one time I got a DMCA from Dreamhost - back in 2005 I think - they just quarantined the folder in question, didn't delete anything.



I don't know how Webfaction reacts but I'm not doing the unsanctioned stuff anymore so I think I'll be fine... knock on wood.

I don't know whether I just don't post anything the DMCA nazis are keen on, but I've just had one DMCA notice in the past couple of years and that was for a Deadmau5 remix that I'd posted a few months prior (with permission). Either way Dreamhost passed along the DMCA and moved the mp3 to a non-accessible part of my webspace.

HostNine have never said anything about hosting the blog for the past four years (in the earlier years of which my mp3s got DMCA'd quite a bit but they were always hosted elsewhere).

Wow. A terabyte? I wouldn't be any more worried because of this Blogger stuff, but I'm impressed DH hasn't been on your case a bit about upgrading already. They wouldn't delete your stuff for using so much bandwidth but they might try to push you to upgrade (bandwidth is not cheap).

Always good to keep the site backed up regularly though - doesn't matter where you're hosted.

Jesus fucking Christ, all gone with no plan B?  Fucking hell mate, you have my sympathies.

that's awful. switching to a different host might solve the problem, but the only guarantee that you don't lose your work is making sure you back everything up. sure, its a pain, but clearly we should all be doing it, regardless of what hosts we're using.

the one thing that keeps being highlighted by these deletions, is that whether or not you are getting permission to host files has absolutely no bearing on the DMCA process. really devastates the argument that we should be playing by the labels rules.

Ugh, this is really frustrating.

You should be able to get the posts / data back enough to migrate elsewhere. There are a lot of hosts around.

Write your messages to these guys well and clearly. Reference the issues with tracks you've received permission to post that got DMCA'd anyway, that way you'll be able to get your data back.

Though as per DMCA, Google is within their right to cancel service if they get too many requests. So no more blogger.com but at least you can get the data.

Plan to write a piece on this for the Guardian - anyone willing to cite recent posts they've made that might have drawn the DMCA notices?

Can you guys get the notice that prompted this from them? If you can file the DMCA counter notice as per law, things can move ahead.

The official Blogger just retweeted what rklau said

http://twitter.com/Blogger/status/8920701942

Looks like not even Blogger people know what's going on.

for those looking for more background on previous blog/post deletions, LA Weekly did a good story on this last year: http://www.laweekly.com/2009-02-05/music/google-39-s-new-killer-app-why-are-music-bloggers-39-posts-disappearing-and-who-is-deleting-them/all

(full disclosure: i'm interviewed in it.)

blogger's response ---- http://buzz.blogger.com/2010/02/quick-note-about-music-blog-removals.html

If the press really gets on top of this (and thanks to Matt, Sean) I think it's going to put nearly everyone firmly in bloggers' corners and labels will suffer even more than they already have. When you have big name acts/press/people backing the blogs it should create some big time mainstream discussion. Or not, but I anticipate as much happening, and not just among us bloggers. Interested in seeing where it goes from here...