Don't be evil

Don't be evil is Google's informal corporate motto They just blew it today -- from the UK Guardian:

Google shuts down music blogs without warning
In what critics are calling "musicblogocide 2010", Google has deleted at least six popular music blogs that it claims violated copyright law. These sites, hosted by Google's Blogger and Blogspot services, received notices only after their sites � and years of archives � were wiped from the internet.

"We'd like to inform you that we've received another complaint regarding your blog," begins the cheerful letter received by each of the owners of Pop Tarts, Masala, I Rock Cleveland, To Die By Your Side, It's a Rap and Living Ears. All of these are music-blogs � sites that write about music and post MP3s of what they are discussing. "Upon review of your account, we've noted that your blog has repeatedly violated Blogger's Terms of Service ... [and] we've been forced to remove your blog. Thank you for your understanding."

Jolly as Google may be, none of the bloggers who received these notices are "understanding" in the least. Although such sites once operated on the internet's fringes, almost exclusively posting songs without permission, many blogs are now wined, dined and even paid (via advertising) by record labels. After the success of blog-buzzy acts such as Arcade Fire, Lily Allen and Vampire Weekend, entire PR firms are dedicated to courting armchair DJs and amateur critics.

I realize that there are a lot of illegal MP3s and a lot of Legal ones and sorting them out would take a lot of time. Still, the way to go would be to simply firewall the blogs and set up an arbitration panel to review each one with the blog author and the person complaining about Copyright Violation. To delete the entire blog without the recourse of downloading a backup is downright evil personified. I back up this blog on a weekly basis but if it was taken down without my knowledge or consultation, I would be quite pissed...