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Google Deletes Artist's Blog and a Decade Of His Work Along With It (fusion.net)
Ethan Chiel, writing for Fusion: Artist Dennis Cooper has a big problem on his hands: Most of his artwork from the past 14 years just disappeared. It's gone because it was kept entirely on his blog, which the experimental author and artist has maintained on the Google-owned platform Blogger since 2002 (Google bought the service in 2003). At the end of June, Cooper says he discovered he could no longer access his Blogger account and that his blog had been taken offline. Along with his blog, Google disabled Cooper's email address, through which most of his correspondence was conducted, he told me via Facebook message. He got no communication from Google about why it decided to kill his email address and blog. Cooper used the blog to post his fiction, research, and visual art, and as Artforum explains, it was also "a platform through which he engaged almost daily with a community of followers and fellow artists." His latest GIF novel (as the term suggests, a novel constructed with animated GIFs) was also mostly saved to the blog.WayBackMachine has some of the pages from his blog, but they are only screenshots. Google Cache is also of not much help. Slashdot readers, just out of curiosity, is there anything -- any service -- Mr. Cooper could use to get his artwork back?
The blog ate my homework.
until the lightning bolt comes out of it....
I mean...really? It's 2016. Your art is your passion, and you don't have it backed up ANYWHERE?
If you dont have a backup, then it must not have been important to you...
Actually, if you haven't successfully tested a restore of your backup, you don't have a backup (and it must not be that important to you.)
"Cooper, who lives in France, told Artforum he’s consulted a French lawyer specializing in intellectual property. He told me he’s considering suing Google"
Blogger TOS:
"OTHER THAN AS EXPRESSLY SET OUT IN THESE TERMS OR ADDITIONAL TERMS, NEITHER GOOGLE NOR ITS SUPPLIERS OR DISTRIBUTORS MAKE ANY SPECIFIC PROMISES ABOUT THE SERVICES. FOR EXAMPLE, WE DON’T MAKE ANY COMMITMENTS ABOUT THE CONTENT WITHIN THE SERVICES, THE SPECIFIC FUNCTIONS OF THE SERVICES, OR THEIR RELIABILITY, AVAILABILITY, OR ABILITY TO MEET YOUR NEEDS. WE PROVIDE THE SERVICES “AS IS”."
Oh would you look at that ...
Pedantic Purple
Millenials, I think.
Velociraptor = Distiraptor / Timeraptor
Remember that "on the cloud" just means "on somebody else's server". They may say you'll never lose it, but they have been known to lie, or go under, or change their service. Remember the Sidekick which advertised all your phone data would be in the cloud and backed up so you'd never risk losing it?
http://archive.is/3tNs
Where does all this hate for millenials comes from?
Gen Xer's who are stuck between the Baby Boomers who got everything and the millennials who whine about everything.
I'll join the chorus of voices saying it was incredibly stupid to use an online service as your only copy of your materials, with no local backup. But what's done is done. If the Wayback Machine doesn't have a copy, try installing the Resurrect Pages add-on to Firefox. It links to a lot more caching and archiving services than just the Wayback Machine.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/resurrect-pages/
Wait, WHERE is cloud?!!
shit.
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
I had been using a blog to record my pond over a period of a year. I specifically wanted to have a timeline record of pictures and notes. I knew no one would be reading it for a while until I completed the year and used it essentially as a notebook that I could easily upload to using my phone. I got about 10 months in and Wordpress deleted it all. Greeeeat. I still have the photos on my phone, but not the notes I took.
This is just a case of someone that doesn't know how the Internet works, and maybe can't read. It's documented elsewhere that his account was disabled because of a violation of Google's terms, and when that happens, after you try to log into google there's a prominent message saying as much with instructions on how to get more info, etc.
Nothing has been deleted. Nothing is gone. He just needs to take care of whatever violation he triggered with Google.
And, as stated elsewhere by everybody and their mothers, back your stuff up someplace else in the physical world. Hard to believe it took this guy 63 years to learn that lesson.
And fortunately he doesn't have a backup, sparing the rest of humanity from the risk of exposure to animated gifs. Now can we get to work on the kittens?
"Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
Yes, it's trivial. When I had my GMail account pwned, I emailed them, and a human helpfully verified my identity, the suspicious activity, and restored my access. Don't just assume it's impossible without trying. And if it doesn't work, just be more persistent. The squeaky wheel, and all that.
https://www.eff.org/https-everywhere
Free? No, the implicit agreement you have with Google is your privacy for its services. Google didn't uphold its end of the deal, so he should ask for his privacy back.
Well, if Google lost m kids' baby pictures you could say the same thing. The monetary and cultural value of those pictures is zero, but they're still important to me.
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
Well, if Google lost m kids' baby pictures you could say the same thing. The monetary and cultural value of those pictures is zero, but they're still important to me.
Important enough to back up?
The artist's "experiment" has made a "discovery". Its important to back up your data regardless of who your online storage "partner" is.
Let me tell you a story..
An experimental artist did some work, pinned it up to the public noticeboard at the load library.
He notice some people looking at it, so made more, kept pinning it up. Never kept any copies, just pinned the originals up.
The noticeboard had plenty of empty space, and he was enjoying this.
Some people even pinned up notes making comments on his work
After a few years, the noticeboard was taken down, because the library had been been reorganising, and there were now bookshelves there.
The artist stood in front of the library, complaining to everyone who walked past 'they took down my artwork!!! its not fair!!'
Perhaps he should have gone to librarian and asked very nicely if they still had the old noticeboard content, because he had been foolish enough to
not keep any copies, and would really like to actually have kept some of it.
But no, he just kept complaining to random passers by, hoping that would somehow help.
Exactly, Google was under no SLA to ensure the datas integrity. It was the artists personal responsibility to backup all of his data. Now it's curious why the person's account was removed and no answer was offered by Google.
I have been on the other side of this (in a previous job), and have had some insight into what's happening in these situations. Yes, accidents do happen and data occasionally gets lost. That's why you always should keep backups. And unlike other providers, Google does make that relatively easy with its "Takeout" service. Also, if you do contact Google as soon as the problem happens (preferably, within the first month), data will usually be restored. Admittedly, Google doesn't make it easy to contact them. So, that's unfortunately a bit of a challenge.
Now, for the ugly side of things. From my experience, a full 90% of the users who complain loudly and publicly, really only tell half the story. A provider such as Google won't publicly comment, as that's a battle that can't be won. The court of public opinion is merciless that way. But I swear, the vast majority of cases, the complainant is really at fault themselves. They just conveniently omit those details when they go public. "What? I should have mentioned that I ran a child-porn ring from my Google account before it was shut down? Why? Is that relevant? I still deserve all my data! And besides, I should sue for disruption of business. My child-porn business partners don't like their e-mails bouncing!".
Not saying that this is exactly what happened in OP's case. But I'd honestly be surprised, if he told us all there is to his story.
I wouldn't be surprised if a DMCA complaint made by a 3rd party (and likely one hired on behalf of him) is behind this.
"Be particularly skeptical when presented with evidence confirming what you already believe." -
The blog was taken down for repeated violations of the TOS. The Guardian can offer you some insight: If you scroll down a bit, you'll see this:
He had a featured post, twice a month, where he would take ads by escorts and highlight their literary qualities. Cooper’s work often depicts sexuality and violence in graphic terms, and some of the writing and images dealt with similar themes.
He has no reason to whine.
"Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.