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:
{flvremote}http://assets.intruderstv.everycity.co.uk/en-music/juslikemusic.flv{/flvremote}
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.
