A Personal Blog
Splogs Solution: Class Action Lawsuit Against Google?
This isn’t actually a proposal, more of a “thinking out loud”. Most spam blogs, “splogs” for short (how stupid of a name…), are powered by Google’s Blogspot service. Certainly not all of them, but a good number of them (between 2000-3000 of them are created on Blogspot every day according to recent analysis).
My question is, since you own the copyright on your blog (or, at the very least, most people have a Creative Commons license which makes copying okay as long as it isn’t for profit), and since spam sites are stealing that content, if you go to Google and ask them to remove the content – and they don’t, or they don’t have sufficient safeguards in place to protect against content theft using their automated systems…
Is there legal grounds for action against either the spammers OR Google? Not that I care about the money, but it’s the principle of the matter. 90% of all spam blogs happen on either Google or MSN. They don’t happen on TypePad. They don’t happen on LiveJournal. They don’t happen on Yahoo’s service. They happen on Google and MSN Spaces.
Are these entities responsible for monitoring and removing copythefted content on their servers? If so, is there any reason thousands of bloggers can’t demand that their content be removed from those servers and – if Google doesn’t comply – is there any reason a lawsuit (class action or otherwise) can’t be launched?
I guess this seems to me like the filesharing services. Yes, there are legitimate uses to them. But, if you don’t protect copyright holders sufficiently, you’re liable for the illegal activity taking place.
Again, I have nothing particularly against Google. I don’t claim to be a lawyer (and, being Canadian, I’m not as familiar with the US legal system as I could be). I’d just like, y’know, the content I wrote to actually be on my site making me money instead of on someone else’s making them money.
Thoughts? Am I off my rocker on this one (feel free to say yes)?
About the author
| Print article | This entry was posted by Jeremy Wright on October 25, 2005 at 10:22 am, and is filed under Blogging, Business, IT Thoughts. Follow any responses to this post through RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed. |
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about 6 years ago
If you inform them of copyrighted content being hosted at their server, they need to remove it.
about 6 years ago
Under the DMCA Notice-and-Takedown provisions the must remove copyrighted materials at the request of the owner. However, there is no requirement for anyone to proactively look for copyright violations. It is up to you to protect your copyright.
Also, you would be unable to launch a class action lawsuit unless there was a cause of action – i.e. Google refuses to take down your copyrighted material
about 6 years ago
Yes, you are. Google or Microsoft as blog providers/hosts are afforded a measure of irresponsibility with regards to the content that their users host, just like a web server company cannot be found liable for distributing copyright content if their users abuse the service. You can, however, go after users individually and request to the host that offending material be removed.
And as for LJ and typepad, Typepad is a pay-service. Spammers don’t want to pay to setup quick spam blogs. And, I’ve come across LJ splogs: http://elliottback.com/wp/archives/2005/10/17/livejournal-splog/ , although there’s a disincentive because they are by default non-indexable.
about 6 years ago
I talked to Blogger about a takedown request and they told me to make a DMCA request (with directions for the format). I did so and faxed it to Google HQ and nothing was ever done about it. According to a WSJ reporter who followed up on it for a story, Google responded. But the site was never deleted and I never heard from them. In fact, the site was mentioned in the WSJ story and it STILL remains with my story as the latest post.
about 6 years ago
Elliott / Jon: Yeah, this is sort of what I was wondering. I’ve NEVER heard of Google removing content, in spite of numerous requests. Obviously it’s not like they’re empowering users to create splogs (though one could create the argument that they are, I don’t intend to).
So if they aren’t removing content, and have been asked to remove it because of a copyright issue, isnt’ there grounds for legal action?
Maybe, if nothing else, someone should setup a page whereby we can point out content that’s been stolen and automatically email Google about it?
about 6 years ago
“Maybe, if nothing else, someone should setup a page whereby we can point out content that’s been stolen and automatically email Google about it?”
Yeah, good idea – a blog that consists of making comments as posts, and auto-email each one to google’s abuse email address maybe? That would take like 5 minutes to set up.
about 6 years ago
This comment isn’t really on topic, but slightly related.
The splog problem on Blogspot is one of the things that makes me shake my head. For all their technological savvy, Google seems to fumble a lot when it comes to Blogger.
Another case in point is the recent addition of the captcha functionality on Blogger to reduce comment spam. Since day one I’ve been curious (and dismayed) to see that even logged in Blogspot users must fill out the captcha in order to post a comment (assuming the blog owner has the captcha turned on).
IMHO, the fact that a user is logged into the system with a legitimate account should short-circuit all other spam tests.
The current situation shows that Google can’t even trust legititmate accounts to be human and not spambots, which is indicative of the real rot underneath Blogspot.
Thinking out loud…
about 6 years ago
Related to this discussion is trademark infringement through splogs. Rather than stealing your content, spammers register splogs that ride on your popular trademark. However, as with splogs in general, Blogger/Google refuses to get involved and take down such splogs – despite trademark infringement being a violation of their terms of service.
Instead, Blogger is asking you to take up the issue with the splog owner…. yeah, right, that’s gonna work…
about 6 years ago
If you’re a business blog it may not be a bad thing that another blog is stealing your content via RSS syndication. Even if they’re putting their website link below my article, my link’s still there first, and my PageRank still is higher than the content-thief because they stole my content. People can complain about it, or they can use Feedburner to make it so not all of their content can be stolen, or they can allow it to be stolen and reap the benefits from it.
If Google gets involved with the legal aspects, all they would be doing is claiming liability for a problem they didn’t create (but they bought Blogger to SPAM text ads, hellooooo). You can shut down syndication, you can create permission-based syndication, or limit what content is syndicated. The thief is liable, not Google/Blogger. There are ways to stop content thiefs.
I have had one “cease and desist” letter issued to one content thief, previously. I have also previously asked another Realtor to remove a post from her blog for reprinting one of my posts without permission (she was rude about it, but she removed it).
This is the blogosphere and it’s very open-source. If you don’t like dealing with the pitfalls of an open-source environment, maybe you should stick to ads and postcards, or print publications. If you want content removed go to the source. I do. And when I do I pull out my lawyers if I need to.
If you sign your posts and link back to your blog via your name, it really benefits you more than the spammer if they steal your content, anyway. My leads and PR were hgher when I allowed spammers to steal my blog posts with my full name linked back to my site. I kind of regret limiting what they can steal now, as most of them no longer steal my content because they can’t take the full post. Limit what they can take via Feedster and they won’t take it. However, if you can, use spammers to your benefit. They’re going to be here, so we may as well use them for something.
Cheers.
about 6 years ago
Oh, and by the way, Jeremy, I’m reviewing your book. Looking forward to the read. =)