RIAA shuts down 73.000 Blogs
polycounter lvl 18
http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?t=964013
http://www.microblogbuzz.com/redirect/74148851
So much for the supposed freedom of speech.
Now, according to the owner of a free WordPress platform which hosts more than 73,000 blogs, his network of sites has been completely shut down on the orders of the authorities.
http://www.microblogbuzz.com/redirect/74148851
So much for the supposed freedom of speech.
Replies
Lame...
Freedom of speech does not mean freedom to steal.
I only buy music from independent labels.
Freedom of speech has always had limits. You can't yell "fire!" in a crowded theater, nor incite people to riot. You can't publicly defame someone nor threaten to kill them. And, in this case apparently, you can't use a public platform to conduct any kind of criminal activity - that includes distributing copyrighted material.
I'm not really even sure what you object to here. If people posted links to cracked games and software on Polycount, and the government ordered the host to terminate the account, you wouldn't defend video game piracy in the name of free speech, would you?
The problem is that the majority of the blogs that got shut down was not doing anything illegal, they simply shared a host with other blogs that did.
purely collateral damage.
my old xoom website containing my very first 3d artwork had same fate ...
+1
Whats that? Someone posted a video in the Awesomeness thread with infringing music in the background? Take down all of Polycountz!
pretty shocking too
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20100712/23482610186.shtml
That is part of the headache of having your blog on another persons site, especially if its on a service known for hosting illegal content...
What if polycount hosted users sites and it became known as a hub of illegal warez? Clearly not being used as intended but what if there wasn't an easy way of going through everyones site, invading their privacy just to find the bad content?
If you don't like being rounded up and asked what you where doing standing on a street corner while your buddies dealt drugs, maybe you shouldn't hang out on street corners with thugs who deal?
On the other hand they should know WHICH blogs thats bad, there must be a reason for the flag to go up. You don't close down all roads because one house is dealing drugs and the start searching all the houses. Would be like if the US turned off the internet on Norway because of Pirate Bay. If they know the blogs, it should easy to make a list and just deactivate those, instead of nuking the whole server.
We really don't know how many of the 73,000 where good and legal sites. I suspect not many while you suspect only a few. No one really knows because its probably not easy to sift through everyone's material, invade their privacy and get good numbers. We really don't know much about their back end and how well equipped it is to selectively find and shut down people breaking their Terms of Service. They might not have a way of quickly complying.
If it ends up being just a handful of sites they kicked in everyone's door looking for illegal material then does that justify the invasion of privacy? Or did they sign up knowing that the service could disappear at any munite and that they didn't actually control jack? People say the internet is forever but really it only stays up while it stays profitable for someone.
Doesn't anyone serious about blogging have their own domain and run their own site? Don't they have backups or plan for what if my crappy service goes tits up? If people are really serious about keeping their voice heard then they should be able to keep on going. At the very least no one is stopping even the illegal users from going and blogging somewhere else.
The person running this server is responsible for all of the content on it. I think the authorities were in line when shutting it down, to make sure the owner doesn't have anything else shady going on. Doesn't matter if it's only a few sites or not - the server itself needs to be looked over. It's one server - there are millions more, I don't see the issue. If something illegal was going on, this guy deserves to have his server taken offline. He was responsible for the content on it.
No matter the damage it does to everyone else? I disagree, there is ways to go around this and I don't think this is the way to do it.
Furthermore even if they did refuse to shut down the blog it'd be difficult to argue that they are facilitating copyright infringement when these blogs do not actually host even so much as a torrent file, all they have are http links to other sites like rapidshare (which are still up due to said safe harbor!) that host them. At which point it starts creeping into the realm of a freedom of speech issue.
Based on the article it seems more likely to me that the provider that was hosting Blogetery just didn't want to have to deal with the legal fiasco that was to ensue and just handed over the entire server (theory reinforced by the fact that they stated they "can't" give him his data back) to the authorities instead of having to sort through a server full of blogs to figure out which is which.
certainly sounds like massive overkill to me
As someone who does a fair amount of web design and server fiddling I find it very strange for the service provider (Burst) to have closed the entire account without at least informing their cleint about the situation (because so far as can be had, 'he' didn't do anything illegal, one (some?) of his users did), suggesting he take down the offending material once the FBI informed them of its presense (which would have been the more appropriate response).
A major cock-up like this will probably cost Burst a lot of business. And I'm sure there will be plenty of lawyers in the sidelines chomping at the bit to get at this one.
Pretty interesting that it turned out to be a terrorism investigation though.