15 minutes of infamy lasts a lifetime online

I really hate having to encourage legislative action over something like this, but it wouldn't be necessary if Google was on the ball like it should be.

For years, Usenet has been the elephant in the room for the Internet. Usenet's prominence isn't nearly what it once was, but it lingers around like a scar on the landscape from a sanitary sewer that was left half-finished.

As Carmine Guzman would say, let's cut to the chase: People have personal problems (which weren't their fault), they get the wrong prescription, their brains get fried, and they say foolish things on the Internet. Or someone posts idiotic crap online under their name.

Google archives Usenet posts going back for years. So these things stick around, if you know where to find them. Because we all know the victims of this shit haven't suffered enough in their lives. (That last sentence is sarcasm, people.)

The problem here is that Google makes it extremely - and I mean extremely - difficult for people to delete their own years-old posts in its archive.

If they were posted under a dead account, you have to fill out a detailed form listing all your personal information and a reason why you want the posts deleted. The form is supposed to let you list all the message ID's of the posts you want erased. This used to work, but it works no longer. Instead, you have to go back and find the URL's of the posts as they appear in the archive.

Often, it takes 5 or 6 tries for Google to even pay any heed to your request.

Then, after the messages are deleted, they often pop back up again later - sometimes several years after they were erased!

And this doesn't even account for the posts that were phony to begin with. I've determined that it's probably impossible these days to get Google to delete forged Usenet posts.

Why does Google make it so hard to erase old posts? Beats the celery green shit out of me. They probably have some high-sounding reason like their desire for "completeness."

Personally, however, I think privacy and respect for those in need are more important. Usenet peaked during an incoherent time when many Americans' lives were shattered. People deserve the right to ache privately. How were they to know that their posts would still be online years and years later?

If they're your posts, you own them. Google doesn't. For years, I kept hearing about how others' Usenet posts were automatically copyrighted once they were posted (regardless of whether they included a copyright notice). Doesn't that principle apply here? Or is it "copyright for me, not for thee"?

If they're not your posts, and are just someone pulling a hoax, then the posts were fraudulent. This type of fraud is criminal. By not deleting these phony posts, Google is just letting the fraud continue to pay off for the fraudster.

I think it's time for some strong online privacy legislation. At minimum, Google shouldn't be allowed to ask for a reason why you want your own posts removed. Under the right-wing DMCA, Disney and Viacom don't have to give a reason to get YouTube to yank videos. So why should you have to give a reason to get posts that you own removed?

The law should also require Usenet archive sites like Google to remove hoax posts upon the victim's demand.

These are the minimum that we have a right to expect. Leaving old crap laying around doesn't accomplish anything unless it's to "get" someone.