[jamie1949]

I run a UK publishing company and I recently published a blog article criticising Google's latest deal with public lending libraries, whereby Google plans to scan all books in the library system and make the content available free on-line to anyone. The only one to benefit from this, in our view, Google's advertising revenue. Authors will lose potential royalty payments and our view is that this is bad for our business sector.

Shortly after the article was published on WordPress, Google's Quality Search Team notified me that our WordPress blog pages causes users to be infected with malicious software and black-listed the site with a warning to users that the pages contained harmful content.

Our blog carried no advertising and we rarely included comments from readers. We checked the coding and could find nothing, however, we had no option but to remove the entire blog because we could not take the risk that A). the pages had been compromised in some way, (admit our technical expertise is limited in these matters) and B). we risked Google blacklisting our main website if we ignored the issue.

Coincidence? Did we get compromised just after running a blog criticising Google?

I know what I think!!

[gordon russell]

Hi jamie1949 ,
certainly sounds anomalous , maybe some of our more learned members could enlighten you on code / software compromise .
But this ' copyright ' caper can be elitist i.e. dosh can buy info.
I do not know an amicable solution to this ' copyright caper ' , but making the library system content available free on-line to anyone seems like an osteniably altruistic idea .

[jamie1949]

Authors earn their money from royalties - simple as that. How would you like your pay cheque suddenly compromised?

[pelokwin]

Did google give you any better info then just:

our WordPress blog pages causes users to be infected with malicious software and black-listed the site with a warning to users that the pages contained harmful content.

???
OH!! just my own view, free is good but the authors deserve to be protected

[gordon russell]

I would a full review of ALL copyright Laws - a huge ,but overdue international enterprise .
Copyright , like Censorship , are not always 'black and white ' issues .
I may not be happy if my pay cheque was cut , but alternative compensatory arrangements could ameliorate he situation.
jamie1949 , do You suspect Google of sabotage ??

[jamie1949]

I really just dare not commit on that one!!!

[jamie1949]

Short answer to that is - no!

[pelokwin]

gordon russell ..........
Copyright , like Censorship , are not always 'black and white ' issues .

Censorship is as gray as it gets but how, in music or writing, is it not black and white?
I write a book..the words are mine..I own the rights!!
I yearn for things to be as simple as they can be, when it comes to art, the "industry" of art makes it gray

[gordon russell]

Hello pelokwin,
money and empowerment prohibit music and writing NOT being 'black' or 'white '

[pelokwin]

Originally Posted by gordon russell

Hello pelokwin,
money and empowerment prohibit music and writing NOT being 'black' or 'white '

Hey Mr. Russell,
" greed of "
it is a shame that folks that have no talent live like parasites on the backs of our most beautiful minds just because they have the ability to manipulate

[gordon russell]

Hi again pelokwin,
not sure what you mean by "greed of " . Could you explain what you mean ?

[pelokwin]

gordon russell ..........jamie1949 , do You suspect Google of sabotage ??

jamie1949 Short answer to that is - no!

So a better "Q" is, Do you feel that you have a problem i.e. malicious software or did Goog. just say that to strong arm you?
I say start a small blog with no link to your publishing company, rewrite your story and one, get the word back out and two, see what happens. Heck repost it everywhere you can.

[pelokwin]

Sorry
greed of "money and empowerment prohibit music and writing NOT being 'black' or 'white"

[jamie1949]

We are not software experts, but sufficient to say, we combed through the Wordpress code looking for malicious code and followed all the advice given on www.stopbadware.org's pages. We could find nothing wrong with our pages.

Kinda off blogging at the moment!!

[gordon russell]

pelokwin ,
I am not trying to be pedantic ,, and I ask as who the 'greed' qualifes , is key - as in grammar - so could you elaborate on your post #13 ?