For all of you who are wondering why there haven't been a lot of new posts recently, let me offer you a short explanation:
It seems that Google, the IFPI & the RIAA have begun a campaign against all the music blogs hosted on blogger.com. A while back I noticed that some posts on DCR started disappearing all of a sudden. I wondered why and now recently I started receiving e-mails like the following :
Blogger has been notified, according to the terms of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), that certain content in your blog infringes upon the copyrights of others. The URL(s) of the allegedly infringing post(s) may be found at the end of this message.
The DMCA is a United States copyright law that provides guidelines for online service provider liability in case of copyright infringement. We are in the process of removing from our servers the links that allegedly infringe upon the copyrights of others. If we did not do so, we would be subject to a claim of copyright infringement, regardless of its merits. See http://www.educause.edu/Browse/645?PARENT_ID=254 for more information about the DMCA, and see http://www.google.com/dmca.html for the process that Blogger requires in order to make a DMCA complaint.
Blogger can reinstate these posts upon receipt of a counter notification pursuant to sections 512(g)(2) and 3) of the DMCA.
I've spoken to other blogs and some of them also had the same issues. The mail only says which URL was removed, but they don't state which link was causing the problem. For the most part we get permission from artists and labels to put their music on the blog, so we don't believe we've done anything wrong. We post links, we don't even own a server. Posting a link is merely reporting where one can find the link. So the people to go after should be the hosting sites where the music is stored, not the people reporting where to find it. After all, Google is not removing search engine results which point users to illegal content. That's pretty much the same thing. I also think that by doing this they are risking a drop-off in the size of Blogger's community and in public sentiment about the company in general.
Why act in such an aggressive manner? There IS another way. A lot of you might know the web sherrif, a company that guards the rights of certain artists. They ask you in a very kind way to delete a link and most blogs really don't make an argument of it and do as was asked.
I also think some record companies and some artists are still living in the past. Records don't sell anymore by playing it on a radiostation alone! For Belgian readers:
ik hoef echt niet elke zaterdag naar de ultratop te luisteren om tot de constatering te komen dat "Poker face" voor de 100ste keer achter elkaar op één staat. Ik ga dan echt niet het gedacht krijgen van "hmm ja, die moet ik maar eens kopen". Ultratop is achterhaald, ouderwets en zeer onhip. Die mensen hebben het alleen zelf nog niet door. Een voorbeeldje: day 'n nite van Crookers stond al een jaar eerder op blogs en was aanvankelijk nog een hippe plaat. Nu is hij gewoon kapotgedraaid, mede door de populariserende ultratop.Most labels know the importance of blogs and send material to post and promote, that's just how things go these days. Sure they're not making a heap of cash for giving things away but it absolutely helps to get an artist recognised and building a fanbase of people who will in turn buy material and go to concerts! Think longterm!
Thing is... I'm fed up with Google's Blogger... deleting these posts is a violation to one of our rights: free speech! We don't just post mp3's, we write about it and say why we think they're good. I considered quitting with the blog but then I realised how much I enjoyed doing this. We've been spreading music and promoting artists for two years now, so I decided to move this place to wordpress. The blogger page stays on for a couple of weeks more but will be completely deleted afterwards!
So therefore I'm extremely happy to present the new DCR site, tell your friends, your parents, your dog and your grandma: we're not over, we're just getting started!
http://dcrmusicblog.wordpress.com/
