Mystery Shrouds Closure of 73,000 Blogs

By: Greg Sandoval
Topics: In The News ,; Tech Talk

A Web host service shuts down a blogging platform and said authorities forced its hand. But the RIAA, MPAA and Homeland Security's antipiracy unit hasn't heard of the site. Who's responsible?

Blogetery.com, a little known WordPress platform used by more than 70,000 blogs, was shut down by its Web hosting company over a week ago and nobody seems willing to say why or who is responsible.

BurstNet, the Web hosting company, informed Blogetery's operator that service was terminated at the request of some law enforcement agency but wouldn't say which one. As for the reason, BurstNet hasn't made that clear either. In an e-mail to Blogetery's operator, BurstNet managers did say, however, that they had little choice but to terminate service.

"Please note that this was not a typical case in which suspension and notification would be the norm," BurstNet wrote to Blogetery's operator. "This was a critical matter brought to our attention by law enforcement officials. We had to immediately remove the server."

BurstNet executives were not immediately available for comment on Sunday afternoon.

Those BurstNet never indicated Blogetery's problems were caused by copyright violations, TorrentFreak, a blog that covers Web file-sharing issues and broke the story, wrote that the U.S. government may be involved as part of stepped-up antipiracy operations. Nearly three weeks ago, a group of federal law enforcement agencies, including the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York and the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), a unit of the Department of Homeland Security--seized assets and Web sites belonging to people authorities say operated illegal file-sharing sites. President Barack Obama has said his administration is going to get tough on piracy and counterfeiting.

But on Sunday, a spokeswoman for ICE said "while ICE's Internet piracy enforcement efforts are still very much ongoing, we were not involved with the action."

A spokesman for the Recording Industry Association of America said Sunday that the trade group for the four top record labels had nothing to do with Blogetery's shut down. A spokesman for the Motion Picture Association of America said he had never heard of Blogetery.

That the MPAA and RIAA may not be involved makes sense. Typically, they try to make big news out of any enforcement efforts. They want them to act as deterrents.

And Blogetery's operator said in the e-mail exchange with BurstNet, that he always adhered to copyright law. Whenever anyone on his platform was accused of posting links to unauthorized movie or music files, he removed the material "within 24 hours."

What we still don't know is whether some state's enforcement agency or other branch of the federal government pressured BurstNet to cut off Blogotery. We still don't know for sure whether the reason for the shut down was due to copyright violations.

This article originally appeared on CNET

Greg Sandoval covers media and digital entertainment for CNET News. Based in New York, Sandoval is a former reporter for The Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times.
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by tsigili July 19, 2010 1:07 PM EDT

That's known as the "official" run-around. Another example of things going on, in Washington, that are of great concern, to a free republic.

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by ibsteve2u July 19, 2010 2:01 PM EDT: lolll....if I had to guess, I'd guess that the blogs were being used to exchange....data and plans....of groups inimical to the continued well-being of our people and nation.

Is about the only way you can pull something off that abruptly sans publicity...other than, of course, something far more mundane involving that hosting service's owners and money.

by ouchitatom July 19, 2010 5:26 AM EDT

The propaganda machine has been uncovered and it will soon become more visible as CBS and FOX news finally learn the rules laid down by the soon to be socialist party of the new order.This isn't really news it just got attention because of the number of blogs shut down.I don't blame any of the last three presidents. I blame the voters for being the sheep they have become.

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by choiceshaveconsequences July 19, 2010 7:17 AM EDT: 70,000 blogs vanished and we probably didn't miss a single original idea. They probably fell into the same dark hole as television programming.

by larrryshrine July 19, 2010 5:07 AM EDT

bobnjersey
at what point does anyone ever get a chance ... or have a desire ... to read an orwell or bradbury novel ... since they're not very 'multi-task' friendly?
----------

I have taught "1984" and Bradbury in college. After the almost insurmountable job of getting the students to crack the book open, and put down their cell phones, the actually seem to take to it. We in the academic community, especially K-12, are not doing the job of letting students read what interests them - please, no more "Scarlet Letter" - and so they really don't read books at all. God forbid they should visit a library. I lament this. Reading, unlike TV or video games, is an acquired taste. And the parents don't help much either. I am only one person, but I do what I can.

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by bobnjersey July 19, 2010 10:22 AM EDT: [Reading, unlike TV or video games, is an acquired taste. And the parents don't help much either. I am only one person, but I do what I can.]

it's been a long time ... but i can still vividly recall many a teacher espousing the value of reading ... saying 'you can experience the world thru reading'. i didn't 'get it' then ... but i do now ... and they were right. older is wiser i suppose.

it wasn't until about ten years ago that i finally realized the point that they were trying to convey ... and my life and world view are much better for it.

[We in the academic community, especially K-12, are not doing the job of letting students read what interests them]

although i'm not totally clear on what you mean here ... there's a peril in consuming only that 'what you think' interests you. how do you ever know what interests you ... until you are exposed to it? i think it's important to consume that which agrees with the way you see things now ... and those things are in complete opposition as well.

without critical and broad based understanding (what you like and what you don't) ... it's hard to see how anyone would be able to 'decode' the 'engineered message' that surrounds us everywhere ... crafted by those w/ an agenda ... and bent on manipulating you to 'follow' (politics, advertising, etc).


by us_1776 July 19, 2010 1:57 AM EDT: Or was BurstNet the victim of a hoax?

.; Reply to this comment

by Lawyers-Guns-n-Money06 July 19, 2010 1:17 AM EDT

Mystery Shrouds Closure of 73,000 Blogs
============================================

It was Bush's fault!!!

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by choiceshaveconsequences July 19, 2010 7:18 AM EDT: Were these ALL children's stories?


by rwsmith29456 July 19, 2010 12:25 AM EDT: I hope the Blogotry was either illegal or seditious. Anything else is stomping on the freedom of speech and we're in big trouble.; Reply to this comment

by bobnjersey July 18, 2010 10:25 PM EDT

[What we still don't know is whether some state's enforcement agency or other branch of the federal government pressured BurstNet to cut off Blogotery. We still don't know for sure whether the reason for the shut down was due to copyright violations. ]

it's on a need to know basis ... and the 'little people' don't need to know.

it's the modern day equivalent of farenheight 451 by ray bradbury.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fahrenheit_451

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by ToolMangler1 July 18, 2010 10:53 PM EDT: Ray Bradury, George orwell and a lot of other Authors have spoken extensively about the future. They are being proven right everyday.
The big problem is that man will not learn from the past.


by bobnjersey July 19, 2010 4:15 AM EDT: [The big problem is that man will not learn from the past. ]

although this does seem to be an age old problem ... you would think that our access to seemingly all information at any time ... and in an instant ... would work against this.

unfortunately ... these 'always/everywhere' technologies like wireless devices, internet, blogs, twitter, et al ... are actually boiling everything down to the smallest 'bursts' of information ... in some cases bounded by a 145 character limit (tweet, txt msg) ... leaving litte room for anything of real substance.

at what point does anyone ever get a chance ... or have a desire ... to read an orwell or bradbury novel ... since they're not very 'multi-task' friendly?


by curse914 July 18, 2010 10:05 PM EDT: Copyright protection, another bonus for the Corporatists. Other issues can hang, but don't share that crappy rip of a cammed movie.

Net Neutrality will be the front line between actual citizens and the Paper Entities running our nation. Once they have the net, they will control the narrative. And to control the narrative is to control the perceptions of everything.; Reply to this comment


by dancingmoon July 18, 2010 9:50 PM EDT: ~As far as blogs being shut down, who cares? All they are is a bunch of people who think their opinions are worthy of being peddled on...~
by usofcredit July 18, 2010 8:42 PM EDT

And by this posting are you not like the bloggers in that you seem to believe your opinions are worthy of being if not peddled then pushed on other readers?

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Thanks so much for the HUGE laugh!; Reply to this comment

by berlinfoto-2009 July 18, 2010 9:39 PM EDT

YOU MUST LOVE BIG BROTHER, YOU WILL LOVE BIG BROTHER.
"Skinner is not only concerned with controlling individuals, he desires to build a controlled society, ruled from crib to coffin by behavior modification, "The intentional design of a culture and the control of human behavior it implies are essential if the human species is to continue to develop." he said." page 156 "OPERATION MIND CONTROL" written by Walter Browart.
Psychological Conversion, would it have been possible for Obama? to have been elected without the eight disastrous years of the Bush Administration? Were not a majority of Americans Psychological Converted by the eight years of Bush. Was this not the attempt? Was this not a plan?

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by choiceshaveconsequences July 19, 2010 7:21 AM EDT: Your thesis then is that Bush was the Inception for Obama's Election? Why wasn't it the Inception for Kerry's?