News of a new Buono! single is up on Some Boys! Blog this morning. It will be released May 14. Inching ever so close to that Buono! Concert Tour…
- zush Calls in Risako to Help Celebrate Cake Day
- fem~taku Wishes IW a Happy Birthday with a Picspam!
- Merry Go Round Keeps Her Traditions Alive!
- It’s a Cheesecake Day over at Selective Hearing
- Indigo’s Grandmother Has Cake Day-Related Psychic Abilities
- Cake Day Picspam from Aitakatta!
- What Non-Sweet Does MorningBerryz Have To Share This Cake Day?
- johpan Celebrates Cake Day With A Pun
- NEWS (and Misa) Wishes IW A Happy Birthday
- Wendy Tackles Her First Solo Cake For IW
Aitakatta!
AKB48
Arihara Kanna
Berryz Kobo International
Berryz Koubou
Beyond The Sea
Bikkuri Project
Buono
C-ute
Eyecandy
Hello!Blog
Hello! Project
Idoling!!!
Ishikawa Rika
Kago Ai
Kamei Eri
Kumai Yurina
Kusumi Koharu
Mano Erina
Matsuura Aya
Michishige Sayumi
Midori's J-pop Overanalyzations
MorningBerryz
Morning Musume
Morningtime
Natsuyaki Miyabi
News
Niigaki Risa
Perfume
Pink Wota
Raid My Minibar
Shanimuni Paradise
Shimizu Saki
Stardust
Sudou Maasa
Sugaya Risako
Suzuki Airi
Takahashi Ai
Tanaka Reina
Tokunaga Chinami
Tokyograph
Tsugunaga Momoko
Wotaku Now!
Yajima Maimi
Yoshizawa Hitomi
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Comment by pengie — 2008/03/06 @ 8:12 am
The site’s gone…
Oh no. D:
If anyone from the Some Boys! crew reads this and needs temporary or permanent hosting, I think a bunch of us (myself included) are willing to host you now that WP.com’s given you the boot…
Comment by IndigoSkies — 2008/03/06 @ 8:42 am
Ahh what happened to the site? D: Since it was removed for ToS violations, does that mean it’s gone for good? That’s not good…
Comment by Kawaiirrhea — 2008/03/06 @ 9:43 am
I think the reason for WP’s suspending the site might have been that they were embedding videos of anime shows. While technically all authorized linking to copyrighted content is against WordPress’s terms of service, some copyright owners seem to be much more active in crushing unauthorized distribution than others.
In contrast, UFW doesn’t seem to have lifted a finger all these years to do anything about the proliferation of their media content across the Interwebs. I wonder if they were just lazy, or didn’t have the resources to actively combat it, or if this was actually a conscious decision not to interfere after weighing the potential benefits and losses of letting it continue uninhibited. Certainly, if they had pulled PVs off YouTube like a number of other J-music industry entities (who might have forgotten the meaning of “promotional video”), they would never have gotten me to spill a large (and increasing) number of yen out of my wallet…
This is probably a good topic to have a deep discussion about sometime.
Comment by IndigoSkies — 2008/03/06 @ 9:57 am
That’s definitely a possibility. Also, I have no idea if this has anything to do with the blog shutting down, but I think I remember seeing a comment on the downloads section threatening to report the blog if they didn’t take off everything that’s available in the US iTunes store. I don’t remember how old that comment was or anything, so it’s possible that it has nothing to do with this, but…if that person did report the blog, then that could be the reason it was shut down.
Comment by Ray — 2008/03/06 @ 10:01 am
SB!B Crew:
I can give you a blog off of Intl Wota if you want it. Drop me a line at ray@americanwota.com if interested, it’s all set up and waiting for you.
Comment by Kawaiirrhea — 2008/03/06 @ 10:17 am
Some Boys! Blog’s embedded episodes of Kirarin Revolution were hosted on Google Video. I just did a search there and found nothing. Nor are the videos viewable from Google’s cache of the blog, whereas other Google videos on other WordPress blogs are visible when cached.
I’m guessing this is part of a larger TV Tokyo crackdown.
Comment by jimhaku — 2008/03/06 @ 11:53 am
Crap! I’d say the TV stations are to blame. I doubt embedding is an issue but the downloads are. But even if it was not the music, if people do not want attention from official sites, definitely do not link to them. Honest are punished if that’s the case. I’m split on this issue, but I don’t want to see anybody getting sued. Be careful.
Comment by jimhaku — 2008/03/06 @ 12:12 pm
I don’t wanna start another big argument…BUT we should start being aware of stuff being scrutinized a bit. If you link to somebody the odds of them checking out why you are linking there are least reasonable. I think everybody does this and we’re not even in marketing or making money on stuff, so just think that’s all. I wish I had thought to say this before, I’m not trying to be down on SB.
Comment by pengie — 2008/03/06 @ 12:55 pm
jim: That’s why I don’t link to torrents or free downloads here, or why I think anyone who does attaches the “before you buy” disclaimer. It’s unfortunate, because I think a large percentage of the S!BB readers DO buy everything they’ve sampled and enjoyed from there…
The good thing is that if the blog gets hosted on a privately owned domain, they’ll have to be contacted directly by either their web host or the company that feels they’re being infringed upon in terms of media rights/copyright infringement. Wordpress.com, LiveJournal, Blogger, etc. will kill items to keep themselves safe, and because they’re such big companies, it doesn’t phase them.
A good alternative to offering downloads, as you sort of touched upon, is to embed mp3s and offer no way of downloading them. That way people can sample them, but the blog isn’t really a source for piracy.
Obviously this is a way long comment and deserves its own post, but you’re right, we should be aware of what we as editors/contributers are linking to.
Comment by jimhaku — 2008/03/06 @ 1:14 pm
I just went trough the old SB posts on bloglines and it wasn’t the anime or the regular music downloads I don’t think but some of the stuff that was on Driveway got reported. Maybe it was a combination of stuff or that alone got back to the blog. I don’t think there’s a whole lot to say about it except those sites should not be considered safe for open sharing anymore, at least not if you are linking from your own site. That’s all I’m saying about it.
Comment by jimhaku — 2008/03/06 @ 1:18 pm
…one of them was a Music Station performance. They are a bit notorious for this, which is a shame cause that really is the only way for us to see that stuff. But that’s a heads up to people. OK, now that’s all I’m saying. For now.
Comment by Kawaiirrhea — 2008/03/06 @ 2:03 pm
From what I can tell, Some Boys! Blog did not actually have any unauthorized content on WordPress itself, other than cover art and lyrics, which while copyrighted, aren’t the major target of copyright-enforcing entities. The blog did have links to audio and video content on third-party sites, some of which appears to still be there. So it looks like it’s not OK (per WordPress’s ToS) to simply link to existing copyrighted material, whether or not you’re distributing it yourself. I personally don’t think an individual should be liable for putting up links to existing material (it’s often not obvious what material is legally distributed and what isn’t), but the laws and practices surrounding this are complicated.