Rapidshare To Be Forced to Shut Down Following Court Defeat?
Written by enigmax on January 29, 2008The music industry in Germany has secured a legal victory over the hugely popular file-hosting service, Rapidshare. According to the rights holders, Rapidshare is going to have to stop its users from downloading infringing music tracks from its servers, or face the prospect of being shut down.
Last week we reported on rumors that Rapidshare had, or was about to be, shut down, rumors that now look likely to resurface. The company, one of the world’s largest ‘one-click’ file hosting services, has lost a copyright infringement case against German performing rights outfit, GEMA. Representing a claimed 60,000 members and more than 1 million rights owners worldwide, GEMA has taken an aggressive stance in pursuing legal action against Rapidshare, trying to force it to be accountable for the infringing actions of its users.
For its part, Rapidshare has always insisted that it cannot be held responsible for these actions, such as when users upload copyright works (in this case, music) to their servers for subsequent downloading by others.
On 23 January 2008, the district court in Düsseldorf (Landgericht) disagreed with this assertion after GEMA succeeded in convincing the court that Rapidshare should take responsibility for infringements carried out within its service.
GEMA are trying to imply that as a result of the decision, Rapidshare will be forced to take preventative action to stop GEMA works from even getting onto their servers, rather than a DMCA-style after-the-fact removal. GEMA says that if Rapidshare are forced to filter they will likely end up with a service that’s not worth operating, so they may decide to shut it down completely.
The GEMA press release has been published before the complete court decision, so it should be digested with at least a degree of scepticism, considering the huge amounts of spin employed by anti-piracy agencies and the music industries alike.
In a statement, Dr. Harald Heker, Chairman of the board at GEMA said: “This decision is a milestone in the fight against the illegal use of our repertoire”, which was almost a carbon-copy of a statement he made about the decision from a previous court case against Rapidshare. He went on to explain that measures have to be put in place for the protection of rights holders and claiming that file-hosts are not responsible for what their users do, is no longer an option. “With this decision of general principle,” he said, “the course of future action against comparable services has been smoothed.”
In their press release, GEMA speaks about the decision of the District Court of Düsseldorf but also mentions a decision from the District Court of Cologne.
TorrentFreak spoke to Christian Solmecke a lawyer at the Cologne Chambers of Lawyers Wilde & Beuger, to see what is likely to have happened in these cases.
He told us: “The normal way is as follows: GEMA files a lawsuit against Rapidshare because of alleged copyright infringement on three or four songs. If GEMA wins, Rapidshare is then obliged not to host these particular songs.”
Lots of anti-piracy and industry bodies state that it’s possible for file-hosting services and even ISPs to monitor, police and filter copyright works from their servers and networks. This case is no different, except this time it’s the court that has demanded this type of action.
Christian explains: “From a legal point of view, it is interesting that the District Court of Düsseldorf decided that Rapidshare has to carry out a lot of preventive actions (if the GEMA press release is correct on this point, of course). This could mean that Rapidshare has to check all of its hosted material for copyright infringements - which is nearly impossible.”
The instruction for Rapidshare to take preventative action is new, and despite another similar court case reaching a different decision. Christian explains: “Only 30 kilometers away from Düsseldorf, we’ve already had a similar law suit in Cologne. In that case the Oberlandesgericht (Higher Regional Court and Court of Appeal) decided that Rapidshare is only obliged to delete specific songs stated by GEMA. They were not obliged to take preventative action.”
“The future will tell us which interpretation of the law is correct.” Christian told us. “Perhaps in one or two years we will get a decision on this question from the Federal Court of Justice.”
As the world struggles to update its laws to cope with the digital revolution, the courts - and lawyers - are being kept very busy indeed. So back to the original question: Is Rapidshare going to be closed down - or be left with no alternative but to shut itself down?
Well - maybe……maybe not.
Christian finishes up: “I believe that Rapidshare will appeal against the decision of the Landgericht (District Court) of Düsseldorf. If they do so, we will have to wait and see what the Oberlandesgericht (Higher District Court) of Düsseldorf (as the Court of Appeal) says.”
In the meantime, while the legal wheels turn and turn, Rapidshare.com and Rapidshare.de continue to operate as usual.
Previously: How to Convert Millions of BitTorrent Users to Qtrax
Next: European Court Decides FileSharers Should Stay Anonymous
100 Responses (Add yours or TrackBack)
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…continued..
and to those that say they hate rapidshare, theyr either kids who cannot afford $5 a month or something, or who want to download porn and have to wait a few hours to get it..
losers. RapidShare revolutionized one-click file hosting services..
x
[quote comment="274917"]That’s pretty fu&#ed up.
I wonder how these GEMA dickheads think the internet should be used?
Maybe they want people just to leave and not log onto the internet?
Another problem we all face is Judges.
They’re all so damn old they probably still think in 1950’s mode.[/quote]
It’s ludicrous to be applying the old model of laws to a new system. Society is being held back by conservatives who don’t want change-when that is the only sure thing.
A message to the lawmakers: Don’t press your archaic laws upon us. We are the revolution. We will shape the future.
Rapidshare is profiting from piracy and that’s why it needs to be shut down. Torrent trackers on the other hand are totally free, by game/music/movie lovers and for those lovers. Totally non-profit.
FUCK rs.
well its there own thought people are copying there music/or watever
they make it public so its there own thought..
if i left my car unlocked in middle of a busy street and it gets stolen then its my own thought..
this is same kinda thing..
anyways there all rich bartsards so let the fuckers get ripped off..
they make millions of pounds just to sit on there big fat greecey azzz and click few buttons, ”wankers”
[quote comment="274891"]Who Needs Real Women Anyway when you have Rapidshare ;-)[/quote]
iknow i don’t… :)
Let’s not forget that no one is twisting people’s arms to pay for a premium RS account - people do it happily. It’s called “capitalism” … HELLOOOOOOO …
To all you naysayers who say ‘eff Rapidshare’, you don’t realize what you’re saying.
I personally don’t like RS since I don’t have a premium account. I hate how their business model forces you to buy an account. Smart, but annoying.
However, what you don’t realize is that if RS goes down, it will start a whole slew of copyright BS and will probably get rid of much of the internet.
The site isn’t important but the ruling is.
But what’s Gema ?
ah , gema.de like riaa, like siae ! :-(
i like rs
first off,I still have about 1500 european labels LPS, yes LPS!. They are somewhat scatchy. Most purchased in late 60’s and early 70’s.
Such hosting sites as like rs are a benefit to the music industry. They (music industry) needs all the help they can get.
About 50 percent of what I download, I buy on cds.
rs etc gives me the idea if I really like the music, or consider it a one time listen.
Long live rs and such sites!
By the way if you dont like rs dont use it. Nobody is going to covet your myopic opinion.
ok whats next MSN personal folders? Youtube? start banning protocols and go back to text based internet?
…
What the hell is the point of broadband if you can’t download ‘’stuff”. I do use Rapidshare and I think it is great, I can download ‘’stuff” at 500kb/s, if I use a torrent it’s about 5kb/s.
Wait and see what happens. The Landesgericht Düsseldorf is known for stupid decisions. Its like any county court. Best and Brightest aren’t sitting at the bottom. Let’s hope RS appeals. The Upper Court will probably make a different, more reasonable decision.
Are they Serious? dudes.. wake up if the Rs.com close.. a lot thing will got Wrong.. We all have pay? that service? we will need our money back if they close they are dead.. and something they win the Court..
LONG LIVE RS!!!! I get 690kbps there on an 8Meg line. Show me that on your wimpy torrents! LOL
well that’s what happens when a questionable website like RS becomes in the top 10 most visited website of the internet.
and by the way what does RS has to do with Torrents :P
haha rapidcrap, decrepidshare
bye!
Lol i have an rs account if thEy Shut Down i Will get very Angry :@
RapidShare is fun.
to all those guys complainin about the speed on torrents……get a life…..you know you seriously cant compare torrents and RS…..RS sucks big time…..
obviously if you are using a public tracker, the download will be slow……private torrent sites ROCK!!
@snaggletooth
690 kbps on an 8 meg line is seriously lame….its easy to max your speed using torrents, flyupload, yastorage, adrive etc
Rs Premium is not as bad as you may think. For a long while I refused to get a paid account there and missed on a lot of good stuff because I hate waiting for tickets, so instead I passed on the opportunity to get it.
A couple of months ago I run into a site with a lot of good links to data I really wanted, so I took the step to open an account at RS. I have never regretted it since downloads are FAST, up to 800kb/s, on my connection, and no need to share or keep my bit torrent client running and being re-set by my ISP way too aften.
I do not spend much time on torrent sites anymore. Rs and megaupload are great on my opinion. if they profit so be it, they have to pay for the servers and lots of bandwith. The only downside I see is the 25 gig per 5 day limit. I don’t believe it my self but I hit the limit before I new it.
If You can afford the price, then I think is the way to go since right now ISP are “shapping” the torrent protocol and creating problems with the re-set pockets they denied they are sending.
My firewall tells me when I being “attack” by an intruder and many of those attack come from my ISP when I look at the reverse IP adress at WHOis.com
Fuck Rapidshare
My BS detector is in the red zone.
Rapidshare could easily move to US as it is DMCA compliant and I have a hard time believing that the US laws are more lax than the European ones.
Even if the German judge takes the side of GEMA, RS would win in an European court.
This is nothing but FUD corporate propaganda.
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