No fun, they say at the DMCA

So the thing that's not unreasonably been sweeping the music blogs this week is the Google/DMCA cartel in which mp3 posts are being deleted often without notification, and don't think this is due to copyright crackdowns of the type we've often seen before - The Daily Growl pretty much has most of the direct links on the UK side you'll need and the story of how two long lost and mp3 deleted posts both featuring a then unsigned Johnny Flynn have gone. Others have lost tracks which labels or PRs have given them express permission to post, often with the UK label or press office left apparently clueless as to why. It's all because of how the RIAA and IFPI work against each other, by the look of it.

We have a spin on this ourselves, namely that we received a DMCA notice last week, except the post in question wasn't removed. This one, in fact, on which you'll notice the only mp3s offered are direct links to Slow Down Tallahassee songs held by the resolutely independent Thee SPC. Maybe they were taking pot shots. According to our quick audit last night nothing of ours has actually gone and we have backups anyway, but do let us know if something has been vanished (NB. you won't let us know at all, we know you readers too well)

This isn't an argument we want to overshadow everything else that STN does, not being a primarily mp3 blog, and when we are it tends more towards unsigned acts, although we're re-evaluating our traditional giveaways of tracks from the top 30 albums of the year just in case. But what's behind it? Well, guess, but they could have said something after years of softly-softly approaches (indeed, we have a quote somewhere from an official source saying they essentially had bigger fish to fry) There's certainly been no announcement of blog crackdowns we've heard or of explicit Blogger/RIAA linkups, and it's not difficult to unwrap the levels this is reaching (17 Seconds, who made everyone aware of what was initially going on when they lost a James Allan interview featuring two long deleted demos from when the band were giving them away through their own site, have had a wall of silence from the previously accomodating Glasvegas management) Well.... we dunno any more.