Google Gives reason for Taken down Linda Ikeji's Blog

Hard times for the ever smiling Linda Ikeji-She will be BACK!

Google has given reasons why Linda Ikeji's blog was removed from its platform.Shock waves was sent through the whole of Nigeria and Africa in Blogland when Linda Ikeji who had the most popular blog and one of the most read blogs in the whole world had her blog taken down by google.

Prior to her being taken down,there had been rumblings with some people she had issues with.This people had claimed Linda Ikeji used their materials for her blog without crediting them or
obtaining permission.But a lot of those following the stories thought Linda Ikeji was so big that this feud will be resolved and she will continue on the google platform.But we were all shocked when it didn't work out that way.

Some had said it was a witch hunt and jealousy because Linda Ikeji bought herself a brand new Range Rover worth over $100,000. Linda herself has confirmed all this uproar surfaced again when she posted the story of her acquiring the Range Rover car.

Anyway Google has now come out through a representative to confirm that Linda Ikeji was not taken down due to witch hunt but due to infringement of copyright.Google’s Manager for Communications and Public Affairs, Anglo-Phone West Africa, Taiwo Kolade-Ogunlade,while talking to Punch Newspapers revealed the following:

“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.

“That is why we have copyright guidance. I don’t know if Linda picked up any content and I don’t know what content is the bone of contention-neither have I looked into the complaints personally.

“But 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,” Kolade-Ogunlade explained.

“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,”

Meanwhile Premium Times got an exclusive interview with the man who got involved in a copyright disagreement with Linda on Twitter, Mukhtar Dan’Iyan, the Editor-in-Chief of US-based The 15 Past Eight Media Group, said he merely spoke up after the blog used his tweets about developments in the war against the Boko Haram insurgency without his permission.

“I spoke up about the unauthorised use of my intellectual property that was taken from my TL (time line),” Mr. Dan’Iyan, who tweets via @MrAyeDee, told PREMIUM TIMES in an interview, Wednesday.

“(I) filed a formal DMCA complaint to Google which hosted her site.

“One complaint is not enough. But safe to assume when Google looked through other examples of unauthorised IP usage and other IP owners filing complaints, it all added up.

“I emailed her (Linda Ikeji) repeatedly. And it was not the first time people had plagiarised my content, but usually, I reach out and they take it down,” Mr. Dan’Iyan added. 
It is yet unknown the next steps Linda Ikeji will be taking ,though there are rumours she has acquired a domain and will be up with that very soon.It also remains to be seen if Linda Ikeji when up and running with a new platform can claim back her spot as Nigeria's No 1 blogger. 

Premium Times and The Punch Newspaper/online contributed to this story.