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Is Google Silently Removing Posts?
mrbill writes to tell us that several music bloggers believe that Google may be silently removing posts. Those especially prone to conspiracy theories think this may be a part of some greater nefarious action in cooperation with the RIAA. The LA Weekly story cites several sites and email/chat room discussion that points to the only common ground being Google's Blogger platform for sites that have had content mysteriously disappear. This still resides firmly in the wildly speculative realm of unfounded rumor but raises the question, should Google be required to notify a content creator when their IP has been deleted/removed?
but it would certainly go a long way towards the perception of their actions as, "good form".
The Google tin foil hat is about to be launched. This is a ruse to drum up demand.
There should be something in there about what Google can and cannot do wrt unsubstantiated rumors and pure speculation. It think it's after the Indemnification clause.
"I'd rather be a lightning rod than a seismometer." -Ken Kesey
thinfoil hat on.
but it would certainly go a long way towards the perception of their actions as, "good form".
Actually, when they say this about content
We respect our users' ownership of and responsibility for the content they choose to share.
(Emphasis mine) One would hope that entailed at least a notice about why your posting was deleted.
Although I'm certain the RIAA has a trick for every day of the week to get content deleted instantly. Ex: Quotation of one line from a song without proper fair use attribution listed, DMCA notice sent.
My work here is dung.
This still resides firmly in the wildly speculative realm of unfounded rumor but raises the question, should Google be required to notify a content creator when their IP has been deleted/removed?
Is there any requirement in the agreement between Google and the creator to so do? I highly doubt it. In the absence of such a requirement I don't see any reason to think that they have any such obligation. I searched their web-site and I see no indication that have made any representations to the contrary.
Now, if the current agreement between Blogger and the content creators is satisfactory, they can take their content elsewhere. Perhaps a competing blog service can offer more agreeable terms and attract more content creators, or perhaps content creators prefer Blogger's service, even with onerous TOS, over the competitor's service for whatever reason (after all, IP policies are the not the end-all here).
In short, I don't see any reason for people to become histrionic when a service provider doesn't deliver goods that they never promised.
Slashdot: Wildly Speculative Realms of Unfounded Rumor for Nerds. Stuff that Could Conceivably Matter if in Fact True.
I had first post, and now it's gone!
on everything from Abba to Zappa
So posts on ZZ Top are safe? Good.
This blog had some of it's posts removed without warning or explanation.
"Without warning, Google removed three old posts from the blog, and offered no explanation. They then followed by removing Remix Sunday 131, and 132- and offered a brief explanation."
http://palmsout.blogspot.com/search/label/Remix%20Sunday
can we please refrain from a "news story" which is comprised entirely of a rumor about missing data and a conspiracy theory explanation? is their anything whatsoever which may implicate google in terms of intentionally doing so other than coincidence of a blog host?
Oh FFS, not those bloody clowns again...
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/10/27/canada_rocker/
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/11/14/prince_b3ta_dmca/
http://torrentfreak.com/village-people-hire-web-sheriff-080215/
http://stereogum.com/archives/web-sheriff-to-mp3-bloggers-happy-easter-thanks-fo_008539.html
etc.
etc.
But I've figured out a way to defeat them: someone should take Bob Marley's lyrics literally.
To do something right, you often have to roll up your sleeves and get busy.
In the end, this is like a hitchhiker bitching when their ride only takes them part way. If it's free, you don't have much to complain about. If you'd like complete freedom, host your own blog, but do it on your own server... with your own lines... etc etc...
google is not evil. you don't believe me. just ask them! better yet google it ...post removed my google!!
It's no suprise really. Hell, artists (the people who actually come up with the material) might get the impression that they would get better results and be better off financially going it alone and using blogs and other forums as promotion than they would being protected by the RIAA from all those nasty pirates and copyright violators. The excutives need to be kept in nice suits, BMWs and have enough left over to snort coke off the arses of strippers wearing clear heels. It has little to do with any concrete violation of copyright and everything to do with the prospect of losing the Don Simpson lifestyle.
...to their former approach of playing a Mexican Hat Dance ringtone every time they deleted a post.
Every week now it seems there is a new target of our collective paranoia. So let's set the record straight for this and all future stories like this. First, the internet is global. The wires, routers, satellites, cables, and equipment are collectively owned by hundreds of companies, scattered throughout every country in the world. Each of those countries feels they have a right to censor or control, to varying degrees, what their citizens say and do. In each of those countries, there are states, counties, municipalities, cities, corporations, organizations, groups, and individuals, all of whom believe they are also entitled to the same thing. Their ideologies are varied, as are their methods, their targets, and their success.
People have been trying to shut other people up and control them since time began. And people have fought back. Whether Google is censoring or not is irrelevant. What matters is whether anyone fights back. All any of us can do is support anyone who does, and continue to provide the tools to ensure that anyone who wants to listen, can. So if you are one of those being censored by google, step forward, give us your message, and we will do our best to put it everywhere there is an audience for it. Otherwise, can it about the conspiracy theories. They have their laws, and we have ours.
#fuckbeta #iamslashdot #dicemustdie
What entity should require Google to inform the IP holder? If the answer is the government through legislation then my answer is no, Google shouldn't be required to notify the IP holder.
If the answer is that the users of Blogger should be able to hold Google accountable for deleted or lost IP through a Terms of Use agreement enforceable by the Courts, then my answer is yes.
But the first step would be for the IP holder to not agree to the Terms of Use set forth by Google/Blogger and pressure then to change the terms of service, which state in part:
o Google also reserves the right to modify, suspend or discontinue the Service with or without notice at any time and without any liability to you.
o You agree that Google has no responsibility or liability for the deletion of, or the failure to store or to transmit, any Content and other communications maintained by the Service. Google retains the right to create limits on use and storage at our sole discretion at any time with or without notice.
and the bizzare thing is, most of us will think it's plausile no matter how much it contradicts itself.
it's your own fault. Why should you trust them? They have no obligation to you. They are a corporation that will fuck you over for profit or to please their masters at the drop of a hat. Nobody there cares about your work so get over it. Really, we all should be smart enough to see where this is going. I have no sympathy for any of the idiots using "cloud" computing, putting their valuable data and created content on someone elses system
at their whim and fancy. Buy yourself a server, or go into partnership with smaller groups you can trust, and do regular backups anyway. Cheap hosting is negligable cost. Two cheap shared servers, one as a mirror can cost you as little as $20 a year. Why risk using Google or any of the free services that have no interest in looking after your stuff?
I just posted something that was sure to be modded insightful +5, but it has vanished! Seriously!
After logging in slashdot still does not take you back to the page you were on. It's been that way for 20 years.
Google has been using some advance beta CPUs that use the lower accuracy math.
The data has been lost but may be restored in 10 years or so, when google's million monkeys stumble across it. :)
Post deleted by google due to copyright violation.
...
i have a web site through Google's old googlepages domain and had several times when links embedded videos and trackers all disappeared. this al seem to happen when google would "update there web app" to "give you more flexibility and creativity" it usually ment that i had to find a new version of the code that worked with there new version and sometime it could not be fixed. it would have been nice to get a heads up, but what do i expect for free.
i suppose it is like my dad told me when i was a young one if a government or corporation is big enough to give you everything for free they are big enough to do anything to you with out much cost to them.
it would be nice if cuil or some other sites would compete with Google on web apps and services. maybe this would at least slow Google becoming the next microsoft in the very negative since of that stereo type.
Chuck Norris does.....
I have been getting spam that links to google blogs selling me all the usual spammer merchandise
well maybe we can see if it's true.
http://riaatoday.blogspot.com/
http://riaatoday.com/
If you want to be able to post here, send me your e-mail address. ramjet at sfdj.net
Why bother
Dude, don't use google software for your blog. Wordpress: they'll host it for you, or you can set it up in 10 minutes yourself.
... and you get what you pay for.
Read my blog.
No, they shouldn't. And if you don't like it, quit being a pansy who wants everything for free and start hosting your own blog on an account that you paid for. Then the only person you can blame for "censorship" is yourself.
It was weird. TONS of my blog entries got removed from Google recently. They were off for about three days before they were mysteriously put back up. I'm pretty sure it was just a glitch a la blanket malicious site error.
How about notify their users.
Yes, i know they are a private company, not held to constitutional standards, bla bla bla, but what they are doing is wrong.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
Those especially prone to conspiracy theories...
should have more important conspiracies to be theorizing than RIAA teaming up with google.
Slashdot posts article about Google silently erasing posts.
Slashdot goes down (I got all sorts of page errors first time I tried to read this thread).
Coincidence?
deleting the extra space after periods so i can stay relevant, yeah.
The same thing is happening in the Orkut network, used by millions of brazilian users. Google has added new "spam measures" that are silently removing from communities sight several threads and even scraps. They just need to have any kind of hyperlink at all, to be targeted and removed. They are gone/missing without any chances of recovering, or placed in the "spam folder" (and then you/the admin need to go there and restore them). Just like we are doing with our email accounts, but even worse! I saw several threads/people complaining about this. And some threads were not recovered. Orkut was always bugged and awful, but now it's beyond our imagination. And I can assure you, some threads are not caught without reason. This was a good example of a thread "censored" by Orkut. I have reposted everything inside it, restoring the old lost thread. Use Frontpage Express to open it. http://rapidshare.com/files/196217826/soft.rar.html I recommend that all of you get rid of Google as son as possible and use your own paid hosts, free from any censorship. Better yet - use the PirateBay method of hosting, and you'll be even safer. Youtube have followed the same path, with this new tool used to remove videos with music contents. They don't even bother to contest these measures. Since what they all have done was cooperate with bad people. Sadly, this is not a surprise.
"Don't Be Evil."
But Google's Evil Prevention Dept. has been cut back due to budget problems. They're now looking for a bailout to prevent "massive and rampant sin".
Table-ized A.I.
I thought they said they wouldn't be evil? Google... they said that...
SDMI: Finally! Music that won't rip or burn! Brought to you by the fine folks at RIAA.
i've had many posts removed, some with warning and some without.
It looks like the posts are sometimes being randomly deleted. I have a reason to think that because some posts and some mp3s were given to me by the artist or with the permission from the artists but it was removed! I also had the case of deletion of the mix (in which songs are not complete and the "owner" of a mix is a dj who played it,and who has bought all the tracks). So sometimes it looks like a conspiracy but sometimes they're totally right. But, I think that they should just notify us, bloggers, to remove those posts and we will do so, if bloggers don't remove the posts than they should delete it, but it's totally not ok to just delete the posts without a warning or anything.
With all the fraud and corruption in the the world. The hoax of global warming. The steroid lying baseball players. The non-citizen US president with little to no experience. The non tax paying doofus getting the top job in monetary policy. Someone with no security experience getting the top homeland security job. Just to name a few.........
You expect me to believe we live in a good world nowadays? Plaeeze.
Basically, the google terms of service say they can do anything with your data that they like. Index it, cross correlate it, or delete it.
Why is anyone surprised?
Google is a company out to make a profit. In good times, they don't need to be slimy, but as they need to layoff people, this company, like any other company will strive to survive. Hopefully, they won't do anything harmful with our data.
Hopefully.
Google deletes a blog posting linking through to an illegally posted album at rapidshare / zshare etc... GREAT! this will probably have a massive impact for small independent record labels rather than major labels... bloggers who don't know anything about the music industry can't tell the difference and get all uppity about it. This is fantastic news for music.
This is a free site, to post freely anything you want, without paying anything, so if anything happens, you can not blame anyone. If you pay 30/month for a website, that has a posting blog forum on it, and you have backups, and something goes wrong, then you can call and say, please restore the backup.
If its free, then you can't complain, same as having a hotmail account without a backup system for your emails...what do you expect? You are not in control.
Have you read 1984? They didn't only change/hide the news, but they rewrote history to back the fake news context.
Now, think of that... Think that Google hosts a big share of information and that share grows every year. Extrapolate that to 10 or 20 years. It doesn't seem so ridiculous, doesn't it?
Domain Registration $11 a year.
Hosting $8 a month.
Blog Software...free.
Right to censor your own content and deal with Lawyers personally...priceless.
For some reason I refuse to use either spell check or the spacebar properly.
but i guess its ok, they use linux
;-0
"Every week now it seems there is a new target of our collective paranoia. "
Except its not paranoia when there are witnesses, who say they were hurt.
"Whether Google is censoring or not is irrelevant. "
No you are with an attitude like that. There are people who say they have been the victim of Google, and Google are just ignoring them. That's a problem. And if Google has become #evilgoogle then everybody should know this so they can avoid them. It is very relevant because they are so big as they are.
If Google really cared they would fix Android Chrome to reflow text, instead of discriminating
Maybe ZZ Top is sorted as "Top, ZZ."
This is so beautiful.
This is the most beautiful comment function I've seen.
Test
does when the post does not conform to /. prejudices?