Yesterday, Nigeria’s leading news source, Linda Ikeji’s Blog was shutdown to the dismay of thousands of her readers. This came on the heels of numerous complaints which were filed against the blog for lifting articles indiscriminately and plagiarizing other websites without giving due credits to source of materials.
Since the shutdown of what appears to be Nigeria’s biggest blog, the topic has been a trending issue on social media as the opinions of Nigerians have been divided on the matter; some say it is the handiwork of those who envy her success while others feel it’s the right thing Google (which hosts the blog) did and they believe it took forever to happen. Well, Google has given their reasons for bringing down the well-followed blog.
Speaking to Punch Newspaper, Google’s Manager for Communications and Public Affairs, Anglo-Phone West Africa, Taiwo Kolade-Ogunlade said the blog was deleted because of copyright issues as Google is part of the internet firms that strongly abide to the DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act law) and other similar copyright laws.
“To respect the rights of copyright holders, Google clearly spells out how users of its products and services can get permission to use someone else’s intellectual property such as text, songs, images and footages. Google is no respecter of anybody when it comes to the issues of copyright infringement.
“Google as an organisation takes issues of copyright seriously and belongs to a group of digital companies that respect copyrights.
“Copyright is a big deal and this is why you can’t just go and pick up another person’s intellectual property or content and lay claim to its ownership.
“It is not a case of witch-hunting and has nothing to do with Linda Ikeji’s personality or anyone else because there is a process, and irrespective of who you are in the world, that process would apply to you.
“It has become imperative for online entrepreneurs to respect the rights of copyright holders noting that the Internet community should be built on mutual trust and general respect.
“Let’s respect other people’s rights and intellectual property. Making money off other people’s content without permission is wrong. Although the Internet is inanimate, it is the content on it that gives it life. These are the issues.
“Whenever owners of online contents come after you accusing you of using their content, it is because they have families to feed and businesses to sustain.
“People should also understand that copyrights does not only apply to text, but also extends to literary works, images and photographs, music files and MP3s, movies, movie trailers and videos as well as software”, he stated.
At the time of this report, it can be confirmed that Linda Ikeji has switched her blog to a new domain name which is at this time undergoing scheduled maintenance.
