There has been a disturbing development. I just got a notice from blogger.com (which is owned by Google) that not one, not two, but three of my recent posts have been hidden due to a violation of "community standards." The posts are the Honeybus stray tracks album "Broken Wings," the Graham Nash solo concert at Club Quatro in Japan in 1990, and the Bruce Springsteen set of the Human Rights Now concert in Buenos Aires in 1988. I hope you downloaded those while you could, because they're no longer available.
This is very strange to me. I don't see any pattern behind these three being blocked. The Nash concert is 100 percent unreleased material, so I don't know what's wrong with that at all. A few of the songs from the Springsteen set are on an obscure official release, but so are a few songs from the four other sets posted from that same concert, and I didn't get a notice about those. Ditto with the Honeybus one. That's a mix of released and unreleased material, but so are the two other stray tracks albums by Honeybus, using many of the same official albums.
The one thing those three all have in common is they were posted in the past few days. Is there some new process that attempts to flag new posts? Perhaps. Or did this blog just come to the attention of some copyright police force? If either is the case, this blog could be in a lot of trouble. It might even get shut down. I've previously had some trouble with download links being broken, but this is different, because it's the blogging service hiding these posts. Perhaps it's time for me to look for a new host.
In the meantime, you might want to go through the archives of this blog to grab what you want, because I sense there's more trouble coming. A year or two ago, a very similar blog with a very similar name, "Albums I Wish Exist," got a flurry of take down notices all at once, and blogger.com simply deleted the entire blog without warning! That's why, if you look at the current URL for that blog, https://albumsiwishexisted2.blogspot.com/, you'll see a "2" in the name, because that is the second version, created after the takedown. And that new version, which is basically a duplicate of the old one, hasn't had those troubles. So go figure. It all seems very arbitrary and random.
If anyone has any ideas for how I can host this blog without facing this problem, please do let me know. I might even want to have my own server so I hopefully wouldn't have higher-ups to answer to, but I don't know how to do that.
Also, I plan on continuing this even if the entire blog gets suddenly taken down. I have it backed up, and I'll attempt to find a new home. If that happens, please check the "Albums I Wish Exist" blog, or other similar blogs, and hopefully I'll be able to post about my new location through those.
Many bootleg sites have a strict policy of not allowing anything officially released. Unfortunately I don't think it makes any difference wether it's released officially or not. The music belongs to the copyright holders (the artists or whoever own the copyright to their music) released or not (is my impression, I am not a lawyer). But I hope you can weather the storm. Or perhaps can open a new blog? Best wishes
ReplyDeleteHi Paul, Have you seen how albums that never were sets up his down loads. Or if push come to pull you can just put it all on Youtube and supply a link to that post. That way if anyone wants it they can run it through a mp3 converter and your not supplying a download link. best wishes, ND
ReplyDeleteHave you seen how
Thanks, you gave me a great idea: I should start a YouTube account and begin posting things there. I'd had a vague idea of doing that for a while now, but I've been too lazy. But if I have an account there, and I announce it here, then people will be able to check that for info if this blog suddenly disappears. I'll only post 100 percent unreleased albums at YouTube though, so I don't run into trouble there as well. I'll try to do that in the next few days.
DeleteIt is so sad - since a few days (S&G was the first one) I cannot downlaod image links - what has happened here ? yours thankfully walter
ReplyDeleteI just tried downloading an album cover and didn't have a problem.
DeleteSwitch from G to b1ng or another site. g00g for whatever reason thinks they are the online cops! They had blocked me from my email for so-called suspicion of downloading certain things. Best of luck, with your great site! Sincerely, D.
ReplyDeleteArbitrary? Random? Yep.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if the entertainment conglomerates which own this music have any idea of who downloads these shows. Any idea at all.
Dare to dream.
bad news. sorry to hear it. thanks for your work.
ReplyDeleteDamn!
ReplyDeleteRemarkably enough, of all the mp 3 download blogs I read regularly, only "Any Major Dude With Half A Heart" has not had any trouble with takedowns or blogs being hidden. Maybe you could contact him and ask him how he stores his data or his download links ...
ReplyDeleteSome artists are more vigilent about ROIOs than others. Prince and the Eagles were notorious about it, as was the CSNY diaspora (especially Crosby, Young less so). Also, surprisingly, were many classical and jazz artists (Charles Mingus's widow protested a concert being posted, and they took it down). That said, your site (much as I love it) has skirted a little close to the line with released material (I was tempted on the VU stuff but backed off for that reason.) Good advice is to stick with unreleased music; the Nash was probably pulled because he has new music out now and would likely release that concert commercially on his own.
ReplyDeleteYeah, but it's so random. For instance, I've heard that about the Eagles too, but I've posted multiple Eagles albums here and never had a problem. I also posted another Nash album just a week earlier, and didn't have trouble with that one. I will stick with posting totally unreleased stuff for the near future just to see what happens with that.
DeleteTry another host, it ain't gonna go away. fortunately I've never had any issues on mine.
ReplyDeleteI suspect that there is going to be a new wave of AI based routines looking for any real or implied infringible violations. The end may be on the horizon. I hope not.....
ReplyDeleteThank you for all of the time & effort that you put into sharing an incredibly diverse set of music. Hoping for the best....
Yours is the music blog I visit most often - I hope it stays up. You never can tell who will take offence, though. I once had an eBay listing of a legitimate NME cover disc taken down because Jeff Buckley's estate objected to it being sold separately from the original magazine it came with.
ReplyDeleteI found the SNACK benefit on another posting site a while back, in FLAC. Sorry you had this problem, and I hope it does not happen again! I really enjoy your efforts, especially your software to improve the vocal balances, and your removal of VJ/DJ voiceovers.
ReplyDelete