Repeated DMCA Violations Are Punished Gradually

Some blog owners don't understand the serious nature of DMCA Violations in Blogger blogs - and how offenses are handled, by Google.

We've seen several reports, in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken, from blog owners who appear to be unclear about the consequences of repeated DMCA Violations.

I got email from Blogger, about my Blogger account.

We'd like to inform you that we've received another complaint regarding a blog that you administer. Upon review of your account, we've noted that you've repeatedly violated the Terms of Service: http://www.blogger.com/go/terms. Given that we've provided you with several warnings of these violations and advised you of our policy towards repeat infringers, we've been forced to disable your Blogger service.

How do I get my blog restored?

This example appears to represent the final step, in a 3 step policy.

It appears that Google takes a 3 step approach, towards DMCA violations. This is similar to the TOS Violations punishment process.

1. Deletion of offending posts.
2. Deletion of offending blogs.
3. Deletion of offending Blogger account (and blogs).

We've noted the initial step - deletion of offending posts, before. Specific blog posts, which are identified as DMCA Violations, are saved as Draft content. This allows the blog owner to correct the offense, and re publish a corrected post, without losing the content.

If the owner chooses to ignore the initial DMCA Violation, and simply re publishes an offending post - or if the owner publishes multiple offending posts, the blog is deleted. The owner is free to publish another blog, at his convenience - but the offending blog is not recoverable.

If the owner publishes a new blog, containing the same offending material - or if the owner publishes multiple offending blogs, the Blogger account (and blogs) is deleted.

As with all email delivered warnings, there will be cases when the owner may not receive warnings in a timely fashion. Unfortunately, the owner is responsible, even so, when he offends, repeatedly.

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Abuse Reporting Is Not For Deleting A Blog For Which You Lost Control

Sometimes, people lose control of their blog, with no ability to regain control - and simply want the blog deleted.

How do I have Blogger delete the blog, for me, since I can't prove ownership?

When advised that Blogger does not delete blogs on behalf of former owners, the next thought by the former owner is to have the blog deleted as abuse.

What category of Abuse should I use, to have a previously owned blog, deleted?

While not genuinely fraudulent, the latter approach is misuse of the Abuse reporting process.

The Abuse Reporting process is properly used to report blogs owned by another party, for TOS Violations.

Blogger currently provides the Blogger Help: Report abuse form, which has specific categories of abuse.

• Legal issues
• Hate speech, violent or crude content
• Harassment
• Spam, phishing, or malware
• Nudity
• Posting of private information
• Impersonation

All of those categories refer to content published by another person. Nothing there is for reporting a blog previously owned, with control lost by negligence.

Whatever the loss of control, it's yours to correct.

• Corporate blog, control lost.
• Personal blog, control lost.
• Team blog, control stolen.

None of these scenarios warrant abuse / TOS violation reports.

Note a very specific warning, about misuse of the DMCA Violation complaint.

Please note that you will be liable for damages (including costs and attorneys' fees) if you materially misrepresent that a product or activity is infringing your copyrights. Indeed, in a recent case (please see http://www.onlinepolicy.org/action/legpolicy/opg_v_diebold/ for more information), a company that sent an infringement notification seeking removal of online materials that were protected by the fair use doctrine was ordered to pay such costs and attorneys fees. The company agreed to pay over $100,000. Accordingly, if you are not sure whether material available online infringes your copyright, we suggest that you first contact an attorney.

If your company publishes a blog, you are responsible for retaining control of the blog, as with any corporate asset. If you lose control of a corporate asset, you don't contact the vendor, and demand that they delete the asset that you lost. Your problem is with the current owner - whether it's a civil or criminal issue, it's not the responsibility of the vendor to correct an ownership problem.

If the blog was personally yours, and you forgot the account name and / or password, it's your responsibility to regain control.

If the blog was under team ownership, and another team member stole the blog, your problem is with the former team member. If the team member was (righteously or spuriously) classified as a non repentant spammer, you may have to get the blog reviewed, to regain control.

If you believe that you can prove your right to control (or delete) the blog, you may hire a lawyer, and have a judge certify your identity. None of these cases can be resolved, using abuse / TOS violation reporting.

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Everybody Won't Get Proper Notification When Their Blog Is Deleted Or Locked

One problem that we're seeing in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken involves blog owners, who recently discovered their blogs deleted or locked, by Blogger - and without any notice received.

The account actions may be required with the blog deleted for a suspected TOS Violation, such as hosting malware, porn, or spam - or locked because of "suspicious activity" on the Blogger account.

Why was my blog deleted? I never got proper notice!

Too many people depend upon email notification - and may not receive proper notification, in all cases.

Blogger provides a dashboard based malware / porn / spam classification notification / recovery process, which may not be available for everybody. Similar to malware / porn / spam classification, there will be issues with DMCA violation notification.

This is also a problem when accounts are locked for "suspicious activity", and when blogs are locked for hosting malicious third party gadgets.

There are several reasons why some blog owners won't get notification of their blogs being deleted or locked, by the various Blogger / Google security processes. Besides notification limitations, nobody should expect to get advance warning of action being taken - as this would simply encourage the intentional spammers to never request review.

Intentional spammers, if permitted, would play 3 Card Monte, endlessly, with their spammy blogs. Both the notification, and advance warning, limitations contribute to confusion about the various Blogger / Google security recovery options.

All email based notifications may not be properly delivered. The owner of any email account, which may not deliver email properly, is still responsible for reading any important email messages.

Too many Blogger blogs are owned by Blogger accounts which are based on inactive or nonexistent email addresses. Owners of these blogs will never see email notification, when they - intentionally or not - make themselves anonymous.

In other cases, some people may get the email notifying them of problems - but their email program may misfile the email, in a folder which they may not check, regularly. In some odd cases, somebody other than the owner may get the email.

In team blog ownerships, any blog owned by the team is subject to action against any team member accounts. Blogs affected will simply disappear from the dashboards of all team members - with no opportunity provided for appeal or review.

Finally, too many blog owners maintain multiple Blogger / Google accounts, and are not completely sure which Blogger account may own a given blog. These owners may not even see the dashboard based "Deleted Blogs" button / link, because they will be logged in to the wrong Blogger account.

Not all of the above scenarios are entirely the fault of the blog owners - but the blog owners are the ones who will have to make the effort to resolve the resulting problems.

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Reporting Illegal Activity In Blogger Blogs

Blogger / Google provides two forms, for us to use when reporting unacceptable content, in Blogger blogs.

• Blogger Help: Reporting abuse
• Google Help: Removing Content From Google

Each form has a different use - and both forms have their stated limits.

Neither form will produce an absolute, nor immediate, result. Google has to consider that either form may be intentionally misused, for various reasons, when evaluating any claim made.

We've known, for a while, of the various options to report Blogger blogs which violate Blogger or Google Terms Of Service. The option to report abusive blogs (aka spam hosts) has been an option since 2009. In 2010, Google added the complementary ability to report copyright violations. Recently, we see that the latter form, now titled Google Help: Removing Content From Google, has been expanded to include a dozen different Google services. The existing Blogger Help: Reporting abuse continues to be available.

The "illegal content" list for Blogger, in the Google Help page, has been expanded, since 2011 - though some selections, in the list, offer only a disclaimer. Removing Content From Google seems to cover clear cut legal issues - while problems reported using Reporting abuse appear to involve the complainants personal perception.

Regardless of which form is submitted, we must note here that all problem reports may not produce immediate - or appropriate - response. Also, strict attention to detail is required - your reputation may be on the line, with your abuse reports.

Claiming A Brand Name Based BlogSpot URL

Periodically, in Blogger Help Forum: How Do I?, we see a hopeful query.

How do I claim the brand name URL for my clients blog?

Many merchandisers are unaware of the simple Blogger / Google policy

Blogger accounts and Blog*Spot addresses do not expire.

Another way of saying that would possibly be first come, first served.

If the clients brand name is a registered trademark, you may be able to report a DMCA Violation. This action will likely get you two things.

• The offending blog may be deleted - with the URL locked to the current owner, for eternity.
• You (your clients company) may get some bad PR.

You probably won't get a third thing.

• The immediate use of the trademark URL.

To avoid bad PR, you might make up for the inconvenience, and compensate the current owner to have the URL transferred to you - but you may have to provide compensation, imaginatively. Traditionally, Google forbids us from selling Blogger / Google resources - including URLs.

Blogger supports our right to publish our blogs, anonymously. If the current owner, of the blog in question, can't be contacted directly, you may have to do some research to find the owner, or - again - get a court order.

If you do manage to contact the owner, and arrive at an understanding where you are offered control of the blog, have the URL transferred to you, properly.

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