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Crazy. Why would they prevent Adult-flagged Tumblrs from being indexed by 3rd-party search engines? http://www.tumblr.com/docs/en/nsfw http://www.tumblr.com/do

• protomyth 13y ago
  Advertisers don't want controversy. Advertisers are the customers.
  • derefr 13y ago
    Right. More specifically, here's what's actually going on: 10% of Tumblr is porn, right? And it's not amateur porn, or "oh hey I reblogged a butt." No, the vast majority of that 10% is one thing and one thing only: mirrored rips of full galleries from paysites. Illegal, copyright-infringing rips. Basically, if Tumblr had any sort of scalable process to distinguish these from their other content, they'd just shut them down immediately. Using Tumblr just to bulk-rehost copyright-infringing images is 100% against their TOS, that much should be obvious. Basically, Yahoo gave Tumblr some good advice here: if they don't want to fundamentally restrict their users from posting adult content, then it's all Tumblr can do (legally) to sweep these gallery-rip Tumblrs under the rug, so that you can only find them by seeing a reblog from them or by knowing their URL (which also, a lot of the time, means "by following a link from a porn subreddit.") It's not that they're adult; it's that they're in breach of copyright, and giving any public-facing path to them is the same as endorsing them (thus opening Yahoo to being sued for that infringement.) This whole thing isn't about "OH NO A BUTT"; it's more for the same reason Mega's internal search won't show you "Adobe CS6 Master Suite [cw33t].rar", even though you could get that from them with the right URL. Hosting something is one thing; advertising it is another. Tumblr's emphasis on free speech is a mask for one thing here: they want safe harbor provisions to apply to them as far as this content goes, by not giving it any attention/promotion. EDIT: I reposted this to Tumblr, expanded and phrased in a slightly more Tumblr-audience-targeted manner, explaining what safe-harbor provisions are and such. http://leviaul.tumblr.com/post/55886555106/you-guys http://leviaul.tumblr.com/post/55886555106/you-guys
    • bdisraeli 13y ago
      I really couldn't imagine that Yahoo would be liable for copyright infringement on user submitted content. Assuming they have a process for Porn Companies to submit DMCA Takedown notices, it seems Yahoo and Tumblr would be protected from being sued for infringement by the DMCA Safe-Harbor Provision[1]. [1] http://chillingeffects.org/dmca512/faq.cgi#QID127 http://chillingeffects.org/dmca512/faq.cgi#QID127
    • makomk 13y ago
      Actually, I think most of the stuff I've seen is amateur porn, either posted by its creator or reposted by others. You might be underestimating just how much genuinely amateur porn is out there these days.
      • lsc 13y ago
        maybe, but that might not be any better. I can imagine the consequences for being known for hosting "adult content" where nobody is checking the actor's ID at the door could be way worse than the consequences for hosting stuff the copyright holder doesn't want you to host.
    • ralphc 13y ago
      I follow a lot of comic book-related tumblrs and I see entire pages of comics posted, covers, all kinds of material that's copyrighted, no problems finding that.
• crazygringo 13y ago
  If I ran Tumblr, I wouldn't either. It's quite simple: unless you're actively seeking adult content, it's vastly better for Tumblr's brand image to hide the fact that such content exists, so that only people "in the know" are using it. Otherwise, Tumblr would run the risk that the top 10 results when googling for "Tumblr" might be all porn-related.