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Google deletes artist’s blog, a decade of his work

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Re: Google deletes artist’s blog, a decade of his work

#291

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But possession of child pornography is what's illegal. They very well may have reported the owner of the blog to the authorities but, in the mean time, google was both possessing and distributing the material. It's not that it's violating their TOS, it's that Google thought they may have been violating the law. EDIT: At least if that's what the content was.

From the OP who said: > "I've read a few of Cooper's books and the short answer is yes, pedophilia is a common theme in his writing (as is incest and necrophilia)." Because of the words 'book' and 'writing', I have the impression that everything there is written text and no certainly no pictures. This puts it in a nebulous position, at least in the USA. Dunlop v. U.S., 165 U.S. 486 (1897), ended up ruling that text-o…

According to the article linked, Cooper is mainly a visual artist.

> Cooper used the blog to post his fiction, research, and visual art, and as Artforum explains, it was also “a platform through which he engaged almost daily with a community of followers and fellow artists.” His latest GIF novel (as the term suggests, a novel constructed with animated GIFs) was also mostly saved to the blog.

Re: Google deletes artist’s blog, a decade of his work

#292
post #255

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google doesn't need a legal cause. It is their service, so they only need a cause defined in their own terms of service.

Google acts like it is a public utility when it is convenient to them, and a private service when it isn't.

They're a private service all the time. Keep that in mind and you'll go far.

Re: Google deletes artist’s blog, a decade of his work

#293
post #252

When my brother died in 2010, I posted to that effect on Facebook. Many friends (majority of them "real life," pre-Facebook/outside of Facebook friends) gave their condolences. Others called me. A few messaged me, etc. You get the picture. That correspondence was, and remains, important to me. Does Facebook own it? Can they delete it if they want to? Can they block me from accessing it? The answer, at least as far as…

We do have a problem because Facebook and Gmail are huge, and because people are starting to assume the convenience and size of them somehow means Facebook and Gmail should be considered public services and regulated as such. While I see the same problem you do- that we're all at risk of losing the correspondence and history that we care about, man do I think your reaction is super weird. Facebook and Gmail are priva…

To be fair, Facebook and Google profit from this misunderstanding.

I do see your point, but I don't feel they should be able to advertise themselves, effectively, as utilities and then refuse to carry the burden of that claim. If Google says you'll be able to store their email with them in perpetuity, one of two things should be true: either they should be legally treated as a utility, or they should be taken to court for false advertisement.

Re: Google deletes artist’s blog, a decade of his work

#295

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For all autistic people: this is not being autistic, I guess maybe sometimes arrogant, sometimes dumb (as an organisation) or rather "too big" for our own good would be better descriptions. But at least not autistic, and definitely not with a follow up where that is used as an excuse for not feeling sorry for them. :-/

Do you think I really should feel sorry for a megacorp that can't be bothered to treat their customers like human beings? I do feel sorry for autistic people, though.

instead of feeling "sorry for autistic people", perhaps you should treat us like human beings. Many of us love who we are and how we think, and don't need your pity, and certainly don't need you acting like our identity should be used as an insult.

Re: Google deletes artist’s blog, a decade of his work

#296

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The data resided on Google's servers -- their property. Read the terms and conditions you agree to, Google doesn't owe you anything. > If it was art that borders on distasteful to some > then google is deciding taste and public values with > private algorithms. But that's well within their right to do. If you don't like it, there's an easy solution: don't use Google. This behavior is well-known (remember Google Reade…

> the fact that so many people are upset is indicative of the growing technological entitlement mentality A mentality Google fosters constantly with virtually all of their products. > You can get a 3 Terabyte backup drive today on Amazon The first words you see when you visit https://www.google.com/drive/ is "A safe place for all your files". > there are alternatives to using a hosting company Like what? Deeply techn…

The first word you see when you visit "Honest Al's Used Car Lot" is "Honest". Doesn't mean anyone should just trust it.

Re: Google deletes artist’s blog, a decade of his work

#297
post #50

Somewhat relevant https://xkcd.com/1150/

It's NOT like that. Rather Chad already sold it all off to Craigslist and informed the owner after the fact. If Google was a storage facility and did this, free or no, they would be liable.

Uh, it's not really like that either.

It's more like Chad informed the police of the dead body he found in his garage, and they removed it. Chad called to let you know after the fact, because you are obviously not his first priority in that situation.

Re: Google deletes artist’s blog, a decade of his work

#298
post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You might not want to, but maybe you should. Case in point.

Not case in point. Whether you make your own site is completely orthogonal to whether you have backups. There are people that use blogger or wordpress for free and back it up, and there are people that pay for hosting or servers to host customized websites and don't back them up.

You're right, I guess. I suppose I worded it poorly. I really just meant that if you're going to be a "web artist" you should probably be a bit more web savvy in general. Make your own site, learn about backing up, etc.

Re: Google deletes artist’s blog, a decade of his work

#299
post #100

If it's really due to some kind of erotic pictures, then I don't understand why often american companies like Google act like iranian. Is there any laws in USA that allows to punish Google for hosting images of woman nipples? Why both App store and Google play's TOS include sins from Old Testament?

Other people here are saying those erotic pictures (or story depictions) were of kids, where there _are_ laws that allow punishing Google for hosting and not immediately reporting them.

Re: Google deletes artist’s blog, a decade of his work

#300
post #71

The hindsight-prescriptive comments here focus on backing up, and that's a sensible practice. But there was another kind of damage done here, to the man's identity, location and voice. His blog and his email address were his public persona. He used his blog and his address as identity, and as his channel of communication with followers, other artists, and I assume most of his general online communication. That person…

I've had my own domains for over a decade and I switched my mail off Google to my own servers as well. One thing I worry about thought: what happens when I die? My credit cards will eventually shut down, my Linode will turn off when my card gets declined, and my domains will fail to renew. But the same thing happens the other direction. Github could shut down Github pages one day, or they could even go out of busines…

If it was/is culturally relevant it lives on in future works. I don't think google looses anything internally. They need that stuff one day to teach AI some tricks.
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