September 17, 2010
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Xanga Removing Copyright Infringements
So here’s a funny question… has anybody had xanga remove content from their site, because it infringes on copyright? It seems to have happened to me, though I never noticed it!
In this entry here of mine about bagels, I googled a picture of a bagel to include in the post. This might not be completely on the level, but I think it’s pretty common blogging behaviour. However, I notice that the bagel picture is now gone, and in its place is this notification from xanga:
Image removed due to DMCA violation notice. For more information please go here: http://help.xanga.com/about/legal/digital-millennium-copyright-act-dmca/
This is embedded in the post.
Part of the head-scratcher in this for me is the following: in order to remove that picture and put in a text notification, does that mean xanga went in and edited the content of my post? Does that also mean they can and will edit the content of anybody’s xanga posts at any time?
Has anybody else had this happen to them? Do you know if this is an automated process, or did xanga come and remove my googled picture specifically?
Comments (56)
Weird.
You can perform an experiment with that same bagel picture.
@Elegast - Say what?
@NikBv - Repost the same picture and sees if it similarily polymorphs.
@Elegast - hmm. The thing is, not sure if I had that picture linked or uploaded. I’m also not even really sure what picture it was.
I’m a Xanga-dweeb…so I don’t know what to tell you. I didn’t know this could happen. I will check back to see if you find out the answers you’re seeking…I’d be interested in them.
I haven’t had that happen to me yet, but I have seen quite a few Xangans take posts from other blogs and post them on verbatim.
@ItIsAllGravy - Yep. And maybe I’m insulting the owner of that picture a bit here, but I don’t think this is exactly on the same level. It’s original writing, and just a googled and linked picture. Which makes me think the picture owner must have made a specific legal threat to xanga?
I haven’t had that happen to me yet, but I have seen quite a few Xangans take posts from other blogs and post them on verbatim.
interesting.
I had that happen once in the past but I took down the material. I wonder if that has anything to do with ACTA.
I don’t think that I’ve had that happen.
curiouser n hmmm
That is a scary thought. I will have to form a contingency plan for deleting my Xanga in order to protect what I consider to be my intellectual property.
Never happen to me. That’s so weird. But I know someone who was unable to upload a photo because it shows Buddhist statues.
I imagine xanga removed it because someone put in a request to have it removed. It will be interesting to read their response on it.
That hasn’t happened to me so far.
I haven’t seen that happen before, so I don’t know.
that’s weird…
Well since no one can really profit from copyrighting say music that is protected maybe they don’t mind. Like on MySpace people can assume the identity of a band and sell their music for profit (remember scocap). So MS has started cracking down (I run a few pages for Sony). But here there is not (to my knowledge) any way to sell music or video’s thats why I think xanga is more lenient.
I tried to copy/paste some pics on an entry I wanted to do and they pasted just fine, but when I saved it the public view only showed the little image box with the red yellow and blue shapes in them. I tried to redo this several times and make a new blog with the same pics, still it didn’t work! *shrugs*
I wonder if that was Xangas doing?
if you go back to the post, click edit, those part that xanga embedded, is it in written form, or a “picture” of the words?
I can’t imagine it being an automated process. Why your bagel?
There’s also something I’m curious about. Is it a copyright infringement to post a youtube video on your blog, not just a link to the video but the vid itself? It wouldn’t seem so since youtube offers embed code for every video I’ve ever viewed there.
I have never had it that Xanga removed or change any content. I seldom use googled pictures . I suppose that they will only do something if they get a complaint, ad theywill probably only change public pages. I do not think it is an automated process for it most likely is a manual process.
Removing copyrighted material I can understand – it’s in the user agreement after all. It’s the idea that they edited your post that bothers me. Normally, a site seeking to protect itself legally in the event of a copyright complaint would simply remove your post from public view and let you know that it needed to be edited to remove the violation. This is odd.
Imageshack.us hosting ftw.
It looks like they went in and just did it. I am sure they have the right under the circumstances. still it is a bit unnerving. And considering the issues I had getting them to do something about a picture . . .oh well
@trunthepaige - And considering the issues I had getting them to do something about a picture . . .
That Hector thing a while back?
Who gives a fuck, you don’t own any content you post anyway.
… I guess it’s becoming like YouTube. everything becomes infringement-focused.
They need to send you a message or something, first. It seems like a violation to you for them to go into your blog like a ghost without making any mention or warning first. Perhaps it may have been wrong to use the bagel image, but they cannot make it right by using their own wrong to fix it.
I never noticed it but I would suspect someone notified Xanga about it and wanted it removed,now I try to add the photo source if I did not take it,I had not done that before. I see my photos all over the place but I never minded it, they do not always link to me.
What if you’re just linking the picture? Anyway, the picture is still there.
@Elegast - Yeah it was Hector and Xanga was not remotely helpful. You need to know what document to file because they are not going to tell you what needs to be done. I had this place turned upside down and they still would not even say what they needed. I had to have a guy tell me off site. And here bang, it is just done. That shows you what happens when you send a lawyer letter. Which is what I recommend to anyone as a first step. You are wasting your time messaging team xanga
@trunthepaige - ah. Sad to hear that you went through all that trouble for an incident where the facts and fault was clear.
i wonder if they’d have done that if you had linked the picture back to the site where you found it. how do the Ish sites do it? eh?
Strange, we usually just drop an email to the Xangan and ask them to remove it. Maybe someone wasn’t familiar with our policy – I’ll ask around now!
Thanks,
John
It has never happened to me.
haven’t had it happen to me or at least notice it. I don’t link to google images though, I save them then upload them if that makes any difference
Well, I suppose it’s better than a lawsuit.
I think of this every time I upload original audio, to an Audio tab where the TOS is very clear about declaring one’s rights yet the law is universally ignored by Xangans every ten minutes.
Back to bagels, it does seem a bit chintzy for a guy to make a case for his little loaf-picture. The rights-owner should have appeared at the time as a footprint view, referred from his site or a google-image search of ‘bagel’ perhaps. Check that out, if you can.
If I ‘borrow’ a picture I always crop it, re-name, and re-size. Sometimes I even add cream-cheese and smoked salmon if I’m hungry.
Good luck getting to the bottom of this, and yes, original content is always the best policy
I x-post from my livejournal and blurty to my xanga. You know companies don’t copyright things for no reason. It’s so you won’t steal their shit without consequences. Does xanga reserve the right to edit posts? If not and they did, they aren’t any better than copyright infringers and are hypocrites. But the xanga team does go about enforcing their politicies in an unorthodox, unconventional manner. And that’s putting it nicely. The team rarely communicates with its users. But that doesn’t make copyright infringement alright. “Everybody does it” isn’t a reason.
@NikBv - lol who would make a legal threat at xanga over a pic of a bagel?!?! If that is what happened, that person had some serious issues.
@bluepillorredpill - you need to save the photos you want to use- (in a file_ then you upload the photo to put it in your post.
serenadante puts a bunch of photos in her blog and they never get deleted…..
xanga is run by a bunch of stuff brits with no sexual relations :p
That’s strange… I’ve never had it happen to me.
I think sites do this when the owner of the material complains and claims copyright, but not as a general practice otherwise.
I agree, their editing your post is a creepy way to handle it though.
Weird….
I don’t blame xanga for doing it; they probably got a request from the copyright holder and then took it down. What is bizzare is that they didn’t send you a message or anything. Really bizzare.
I heard there were alien titties here.
@rankinfrank - You wanna see ‘em, you gonna have to show ‘em!
I actually had something similar happen to one of my posts but I got rid of it. Though I didn’t quite get a message like you. I never felt like anyone took privacy away and edited my post. That’s too much of a scary feeling really. I wonder if someone reported it?
I don’t remember what my image was..I think it had to do with something summery..I believe. Odd on all accounts. I don’t know what is copyrighted nowadays..
Yes, Xanga.com will indeed edit your site if they get a DMCA complaint…the picture in question was some erotic picture i “borrowed” from deviantart.com along with several other photos to make a collage post…the owner of the photo must have googled the title of his photo and saw it on my page and complained.
I got the same harsh sounding legal type notice you did and…
I talked to John here at Xanga you replied with one the most classically funny lines ever written:
“We’re sorry about the harsh sounding tone. It’s required by law!”
ps: if you change the *name* of the picture, you will probably never have to worry about this.
LOL! I’ve never had any of that happen to me. I figure (and it’s true I believe in a lot of cases) even if I use a photo randomly from the web, people won’t feel I’m big enough that they even care. You always have the strangest things happen to you! LOL
A few things are possible: (1) The person on the site with the picture saw it was being used without permission and told Xanga, (2) A person on Xanga complained about it for some reason, or (3) Xanga was randomly checking to see if people were using copyrighted pics. Unless the pic is mine I always include a link at the end of my blog saying where the pic is from… I havent had any pics removed for the years I have been doing that, so I suppose as long as you give credit that it is not yours, you should be ok.
@TheSutraDude - Utube aren’t the owners of the copyright of their videos. The copyright will be owned by the video makers, just as you are the owner of the copyright of your blogs.