TorrentFreak

In a 2010 submission to the US Government, RapidShare was described by the RIAA and MPAA as a “notorious market” for pirated media. Just one year later the file-hosting service was given a tacit clean bill of health. TorrentFreak caught up with RapidShare attorney Daniel Raimer who explained that this achievement was down to a combination of education and industry-leading proactive anti-piracy measures.

It’s common knowledge that the entertainment industry is lobbying extensively in Washington to get tougher copyright laws adopted. In a counter-move the file-hosting company RapidShare has hired lobbyists of its own. TorrentFreak got a chance to talk to RapidShare’s general counsel Daniel Raimer, to find out what their main motives are and how open Washington is to their message.

Earlier this year U.S. lawmakers proposed a draconian anti-piracy legislation known as the PROTECT IP Act. When the proposal becomes law, U.S. authorities and copyright holders will have the power to seize domains, block websites and censor search engines to prevent copyright infringements. But file-hosting service RapidShare have a lot to lose by its introduction and are now spending a great deal of money countering the views of pro-copyright lobbyists.

According to growing reports coming out of India, users of several large Internet service providers can no longer access some of the world’s largest file-hosting sites. On apparent order from the Indian government, RapidShare, MegaUpload, MediaFile, HotFile and many more are all being blocked at the ISP level.

According to a disclosure report, the MPAA spent $400,000 lobbying a wide range of US government departments in the first quarter of 2011 including the FBI, Department of Justice, Department of Homeland Security, ICE and the Vice President’s Office. Issues on the table include so-called “rogue sites” including RapidShare, streaming, graduated response (3 strikes) and domain seizures.

Swiss based file-hosting service RapidShare has yet again reinvented itself in an attempt not to lose too much ground to the dozens of competing cyberlockers that have popped up recently. “As a pioneer in One Click File Hosting, RapidShare has often ventured into unknown territory, to find the best product for its customers. Now it’s [...]

As the Internet’s cyberlocker companies come under sustained verbal attack from Hollywood and the music industry, the major players are fighting back. By retaining Google’s lobbying company, leading file-hoster RapidShare has clearly signalled its intent not to go quietly and now its number one competitor, MegaUpload, has responded to what it calls MPAA and RIAA propaganda.