Double standards for music blogs?

It has been reported today that Google - via its Blogger and Blogspot services - has been closing down popular music blogs and wiping their archives without warning, citing copyright violation by those blogs who post downloadable mp3s of the tracks they review. While hosting copyright material may not by the letter of the law be legal, it seems that this heavy handed approach completely ignores the subtlety of the "grey economy" that exists between bloggers and a music industry which knows full well what a valuable promotional tool they can be - and it appears to be yet another example of how far we are from a coherent approach by copyright holders and internet service providers to dealing with distribution of music and protection of copyright online.

The Guardian reporting of the story quotes Bill Lipold, the owner of I Rock Cleveland - one of the blogs closed by Google - as saying that he had already repeatedly received accusations of copyright violation regarding tracks he had a legal right to post, and that the majority of tracks posted had been given to him by record labels, PRs and artists themselves with specific requests that he post them.

In this video, successful British music blogger Gavin Handley of Juslikemusic goes into detail about these tentative symbiotic links that have been formed between blogs and the music industry, and speculates on ways in which they may be placed on a more formalised and legitimate basis in future - assuming hamfisted acts like Google's don't ruin this fragile cultural ecology before it can become fully-formed:

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UPDATE: Google have responded to these complaints, although have failed to distinguish between legitimate blogs and ones that represent overt piracy, or to answer the allegations that they failed to allow the blogs to defend themselves before removing their data.