A local court has banned Google's Blogger service in Turkey in response to a complaint by satellite TV firm Digiturk that streaming media feeds from local soccer games were appearing on multiple Blogger profiles. Unsurprisingly, Google criticized the move, given that everyone is suffering over a few people's illegal actions.
"The process for making a copyright claim for content uploaded to Blogger is straightforward and efficient, and we encourage all content owners to use it rather than seek a broad ban on access to the service," a Google spokesperson told the BBC. "That way, people in Turkey can continue to enjoy Blogger whilst we respond to the specific complaint."
Copyright holders should target the individuals that are distributing the infringing content via an established complaints procedure rather than having the parent site banned. An estimated 600,000 Turks use the service to blog about anything from daily ramblings, to hobbies, to keeping their readers updated with the news.
Since the vast majority of these users are not breaking the law via copyright infringing or any other means, the complete ban of Google's service is unfair. It's not as if this content can only spread on Blogger: other websites are also providing access to pirated streams of the soccer matches as well.
Thankfully, there is hope. Turkey previously banned YouTube, which is also owned by Google, for two years because of derogatory clips mocking the country's first president, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. This ban was removed in October 2010.
If Google can pull the offending blogs from its website, maybe Turkey will lift the ban. Turkish bloggers that use the site are likely keeping their fingers crossed that this time, the reversal will take less than two years.