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Rapidshare's future in doubt following legal defeat

By Ed Oswald, BetaNews

January 29, 2008, 12:54 PM

The popular file-sharing service may be forced to shut down if it can not control the uploading of pirated music to its service after a German court ruling.

The German equivalent of the RIAA, GEMA, won a legal battle in district court in Düsseldorf last week which found that Rapidshare should be held responsible for the uploading of infringing material to its site.

Rapidshare has maintained that it could not be held responsible for the actions of its users, a now common defense among peer-to-peer services embroiled in such legal battles.

However, like other cases, courts worldwide have tended to side with the rights holders. Under the terms of the ruling, Rapidshare will be forced to prevent the material from even appearing on the service, rather than being allowed to take it down after the fact.

GEMA praised the ruling in a press release --that incidentally came out even before the actual results were handed down-- calling it a "milestone decision."

"It sends out a clear signal that any services, which derive financial benefit from unlawful uses of our works, will have to take extensive measures to protect the rights owners and cannot simply evade liability by referring to the action of individual users," CEO Harald Heker said in a statement.

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By Sniper

edited Jun 13, 2008 - 4:41 PM

Rapidshare (as other p2p networks) thrive on piracy... no piracy means the system dies... noone uses rapidshare to upload granny's pics for the family to see....

http://rapidshare-premium-account.com

Score: 0

By johnyV

edited May 17, 2008 - 4:58 AM

Hello, nice links for ya:
Cheapest rapidshare reseller from east europe: www.brapid.sk
Rapidshare accounts for free(they really give them for free, unbelievable): www.rapidland.sk Unfortunately is only in slovak language

Score: 0

By dontknow

edited Apr 12, 2008 - 5:14 PM

use www.stealthsurf.co.cc to access the sites anonymously and bypass restrictions.

Score: 0

By ohmygod77

edited Mar 24, 2008 - 1:22 AM

A rapidshare search engine : http://www.rsfind.com , it's the most powerful and easy to use. All files of the search result is check weekly.

Score: 0

By jaactorr

edited Mar 17, 2008 - 6:07 PM

So I have A question, Can the members of Rapidshare get in any trouble in any way

Score: 0

By Rapidshare_Love

edited Mar 15, 2008 - 1:48 AM

I don't think there is any doubt for rapidshare, at most they will have to shift there operations to some other country and with the amount of money they seem to be making, that not a big deal.

Rahul,
http://RapidshareTools.Com

Score: 0

By dizzy_davidh

posted Jan 30, 2008 - 12:47 PM

I have read that Rapidshare although German has all it's hardware in Switzerland (which is not an EU country or at least all EU rulings don't apply there) and so they could just up-sticks and move there and stay in business.

Score: 0

By Galway

posted Jan 30, 2008 - 7:23 AM

Im amazed they have lasted this long ...

Score: 0

By cousinkix1953

posted Jan 30, 2008 - 4:37 AM

RapidShare charges money for Premium accounts. They profit from giving you the ability to download music copyrighted by a third party. Artists who encourage file sharing sure as hell don't like websites making money off of their music. No wonder these Germans got busted.

The 9down.com gang calls them RapidShi+ because they make money letting you download things like a Windows XP service pack that is provided for free by Microsoft

Score: 0

By GraphiX2004

edited Jan 29, 2008 - 6:31 PM

PC_tool your name fits you well, i'm from the uk and lets just say we pay a tv license of over 300 + dollars a year to watch shows so if i am out working or out socializing you can damn well bet I'll download the shows i missed on sky/cable if they are not repeated + i pay monthly 50 quid for broadband + 100 + quid for the Cable TV with all the channels, i really don't see your points if the networks refuse to show us the shows and we download them what revenue are they missing out on?? none we wouldn't of ever seen them shows on tv at any point so why not let us see them get interested in them and then maybe once enough people watch the shows and gets interested the networks pick up on the gossip and the word of mouth.

Shows which wouldn't of got shown due to not being popular is now popular due to file sharing, same goes for music.

10,00000 + people pay for high speed Internet just what do you think you are paying 40-50 to 100 bucks a month for? to read emails or send pretty little pictures to people come on!

And all this was before legal DRM rubbish services was even invented you had broadband so don't tell me ISP's Sell customers broadband not to Download Content with else there would be no way in hell anyone would be paying a subscription every single month if they wasn't getting their money's worth or something for their money's worth.

Lets get onto Copyrights and buying.

Pirate content = un-restricted plays anywhere
every single legal alternative offers Restricted Locked to PC's Locked to Specific Devices, and at a way lower Quality than pirated, they also come with rootkits, spy ware and functions that actually break or lock your pc from emulating, virtual Drives, or basic DVD backing up.

Tell me which you'd prefer to be screwed over by company's who couldn't give a damn about your portability, i have 5 stand alone DivX/XviD players in my house show me 1 legal service that offers me movies/tv shows in that format so i can burn and play em??????

Score: 0

By PC_Tool

posted Jan 30, 2008 - 9:09 AM

*laughs*

Tool....never heard that one before, genius. How original. That the best you got?

$300 a year?

Hey Jackass, I pay $60 a month, or, over $700 a year.

Don't give me that "I pay so much so I should get what I want the way I want it...because I want to" BS. You pay what everyone else in the UK pays, apparently *less* than many of us in the US pay. You get what you get for the money and are entitled to *not a speck* more.


Pirate content = un-restricted plays anywhere
every single legal alternative offers Restricted Locked to PC's Locked to Specific Devices, and at a way lower Quality than pirated, they also come with rootkits, spy ware and functions that actually break or lock your pc from emulating, virtual Drives, or basic DVD backing up.

Buy the freaking CD if you don't agree with the format of the online distribution methods.

Score: 0

By tokersutd

edited Apr 3, 2008 - 1:24 PM

He's got a point though dude, the truth is that the common person across the world now knows the best and most efficient way to encode and stream data amongst one another, and the sad truth is it is definately not a paid service.

It is easier and faster to share across the internet than it has ever been before, when something becomes digital it is no longer a commodity but a bunch of numbers that can be cracked very easily.

The more angry and anti that people get towards it, the more people are just gonna say "screw you, i'm gonna do it now just to piss you off" because at the end of the day if the companies had it their way they'd be spying on every single website, download and chat log I create if they could.

The digital age is power put into the hands of common people, and when big companies start to think that they no longer have everyone in their pockets, they start crying and whining, and do things like upload fake movie torrents with viruses in just to be nasty.

"Buy the freaking CD if you don't agree with the format of the online distribution methods." - Why should we have to agree with the online distribution methods? THEY'RE s***! That's half the frickin' point.

And the CD? Dude, that's if you agree that the price is worth it. People are beginning to realise that they have the power to turn around and say "actually, this cd ISN'T worth the price we pay for it", a cd that will eventually become scratched, broken, or even if looked after properly, will eventually rot.

People are beginning to realise they have the power to regulate their own idea of quality control. We don't just eat the s*** they fling out anymore, we have the ability to assess it and decide for ourselves whether or not we are going to invest.

The entertainment industry just needs to buck up and provide better value for money, or better products. How about a bit of both!

Score: 0

By DJGM

posted Jan 30, 2008 - 2:58 AM

Re: the TV licence in the UK:

The current price of the TV licence in the UK is £135.50 for a year which is equivalent
to just under US$270 at current £-$ exchange rates, not over US$300, like you said.

And if you're paying UK£50 per month for broadband, you're being robbed blind!
(Unless of course your broadband speed is somewhere between 50-100Mbps.)

Score: 0

By imafurby

posted Jan 30, 2008 - 10:40 AM

TV License? Why in God's name would anybody need to PAY for a license to watch TV?

Oh, that's right, because the public funded BBC portrays such a fair and balanced viewpoint of the world that the whole of England is OBLIGED to pay for its existence.

It's the same reasoning behind subscribing to a monarchy which would have to one of the most retarded and hateful forms of government that still exists in the world today.

When are you people going to drag yourselves out of the dark ages and catch up with the rest of the human population?

Score: 0

By Galway

posted Jan 30, 2008 - 2:03 PM

History.

Back when TV's popped up, they needed programs. Unfortunatly we hadnt conquered the rest of Europe, and so they spoke all sorts of crap. The american channels spoke another kind of crap and so the government had to fund channels to explain why we hadnt conquered the rest of Europe due to doing away with the monarchy running the country.

This proved to be a success and so it was decided that those who had a TV had to contribute to making programs because everyone else sucked at it. With this the BBC had 2 channels to explain the need why not being under a monarchy and quite powerfull for such a small country was in fact better. Those programs sold like hot cakes and is rewarded by plenty of americans coming over to see the monarchy and in fact earn more for the country than what they actually cost.

Sorry about not including pictures.

Score: 0

By imafurby

posted Feb 1, 2008 - 6:25 PM

It's ok, only interested in pictures of monarchs being beheaded anyway.

Score: 0

By terminalx

edited Jan 29, 2008 - 10:11 PM

You still missed the point and insulting someone because of their name, shows what age bracket you fit in...

Not quite sure why everyone is complaining about tv, when the article states its about music...

If pirating wasn't as bad as it is there would not be need for DRM and the other protection schemes out there. These mechanisms came from excessive pirating (Napster) because pirating has been around since the 90s at least but the methods were to a much smaller group, now anyone with an internet connection can do it, hence the need for stronger protection.

I am sure if you were in their place and your product was being taken from others I am sure you would try anything as well to stop it.

Score: 0

By sjc001

edited Jan 29, 2008 - 7:55 PM

Remember, he is a tool and that says a lot about where he's coming from thus making him irrelevant and to be pitied.

Score: 0

By PC_Tool

posted Jan 30, 2008 - 9:03 AM

I can change my alias. You'll always be an idiot...

Score: 0

By terminalx

posted Jan 29, 2008 - 10:13 PM

He's a tool because he has a different opinion? Disagree with him all you want, he's still right no matter how unfair you believe it to be.

Score: 0

By imafurby

posted Jan 29, 2008 - 9:28 PM

I pity the poor fool being forced to pay 300 quid a year for a license to have utter crap polluting his mind and TV set.

Score: 0

By Galway

posted Jan 30, 2008 - 3:21 AM

Pity who you like, just keep bush on the other side of the water. Good luck with that recession.

Score: 0

By PC_Tool

posted Jan 30, 2008 - 9:03 AM

What recession, you imbecile?

Gawd, you people believe whatever the Left tells you, don't you?

Sorry to burst your bubble, but the growth of the US economy is *slowing*. It has not stopped, it has not begun to shrink, and we *still* haven't seen a single negative quarter.

No, we're not in a recession. We're growing. The Left is simply taking the slower growth and making a "catastrophe" out of it because of the election.

Get a clue.

Score: 0

By Galway

edited Jan 30, 2008 - 10:21 AM

We will see ...

"...the growth of the US economy is *slowing*"

Reminds me of spaceballs.

STOP !! we cant, its too dangerous, we need to slow down first !!

What recession ? I'm sure your right, nothing to worry about. I dont listen to the left, right or any political viewpoint. I dont watch your TV, because im not from the US. I listen to the market, and the market says the $ is in the brown gooey stuff, and the interest rate drop made just aint going to cut it im afraid.

But ... Lets not freek out until its here, everyone carry on ... its just like this global warming nonsense.

Score: 0

By PC_Tool

posted Jan 30, 2008 - 12:12 PM

Or you could listen to actual economists. Most of them agree that we're not headed for a recession.

..but let's freak out anyway. We all know things run smoother when we're going ape-s*** over nothing.

For not being Left, you sure play from their rulebook. Panic, emotional rhetoric, global warming (Btw: you missed the memo, it's "Global Climate Change" now)... Classic stuff.

Score: 0

By Galway

edited Jan 30, 2008 - 12:53 PM

If you want to hear panic, listen to the stock market. If you want emotional rhetoric, listen to Bush.

For the people with their head in the sand, its global warming. It cant have a real name if it doesnt exist, memo must have passed them by, cant think why.

Score: 0

By PC_Tool

posted Jan 30, 2008 - 12:58 PM

The stock market?

Panic?

Wow. I'm getting dizzy from the spin.

Score: 0

By Galway

posted Jan 30, 2008 - 1:38 PM

Im begining to think thats normal.

Score: 0

By Program86

posted Jan 29, 2008 - 5:43 PM

fuk'em... Pirates for life... There are plenty of other sources (if you are smart)

Score: 0

By Point Zero

edited Jan 29, 2008 - 2:47 PM

Score: 0

By Point Zero

edited Jan 29, 2008 - 2:47 PM

Their ultimate goal is to make you buy crap from them that will :

1) Spy on you and your browsing habits
2) Take control on what and when you use something on your computer
3) Let's you buy hot air, music files (of horrible quality BTW) that will go Poof! after 3 days.
4) Make them run with your money, and laugh you in the face.

This is the real goal of 'holy' instances as the RIAA or GEMA.

Score: 0

By prabakarm

posted Jan 29, 2008 - 2:21 PM

I am an extensive user of rapidshare and this news really bothers me! Recently we faced shutting down of demonoid and now this news about threatening rapidshare.

All these things are the needs of the time. In the end you can do nothing about it.

Score: 0

By c4p0ne

posted Jan 29, 2008 - 1:54 PM

Rapidshare is the best. My torrent-based P2P downloading has been reduced by over 60% thanks to the speedier "more ISP friendly" way to get 'stuff'. I don't see how they can mess with Rapidshare, most users that upload 'copyrighted' works (if they're smart) do it using different file names then what the contents of the file(s) are and usually use encrypted/password protected archives such as the common RAR archiving format.

Basically, short of shutting rapidshare completely DOWN and sending their families home hungry, there is NO way to stop users from using the service to facilitate downloading of cool sh*t, at best they might be able to slightly curb it.

Score: 0

By Mystiqq

posted Jan 29, 2008 - 1:47 PM

Ban the internet, problem solved.

Score: 0

By cozappz

posted Jan 29, 2008 - 4:22 PM

Don't give them ideas, they're stupid enough to do it!!!

Score: 0

By PC_Tool

posted Jan 29, 2008 - 1:51 PM

I suppose it would be easier than asking the pirates to grow up, show some respect and, I dunno...act responsibly?

Score: 0

By DJHasis

posted Jan 29, 2008 - 2:08 PM

Because of pirates we can even download things and enjoy of contents that aren't available in other regions for a long time or ever.
Like US makes a lot of nice tv-shows but only the "best" from there come to elsewhere.

Score: 0

By PC_Tool

posted Jan 29, 2008 - 2:11 PM

...and you're entitled to that content....why?

Score: 0

By DJHasis

posted Jan 29, 2008 - 2:31 PM

I'm not saying that I'm entitled to something that our countries tv-channels don't think is good and they don't want to show us.
I'm just saying that even with a satellite dish I can't see some nice programs, and because it's so easy to see them by just downloading them.
But if almost every major channel in the states would have webfeeds or some other ways to show us non-us people there programs, I would gladly exept it. Even pay for it if it won't cost too much.

Score: 0

By PC_Tool

posted Jan 29, 2008 - 2:56 PM

*laughs*

Because it's there, you download it and watch it.

Gotta love it. The total lack of self control. The complete disregard for the rights of others in the face of impulsiveness and selfish instant gratification.

"I'd pay for it if I could, but I can't, so I'll get it for free..."

I'm surprised you don't live in the sates. With that attitude, you'd fit in just fine with the rest of the sheep who can't be bothered to consider anything more than what is immediately around them and what may occur within the next few seconds. The rights of others, the consideration of morality and respect for the work of others never even enters your mind, does it?

Score: 0

By whateverwillbe

posted Jan 30, 2008 - 2:34 PM

"Gotta love it. The total lack of self control. The complete disregard for the rights of others in the face of impulsiveness and selfish instant gratification."

LOL.... sounds just like the jokers running the US.

Score: 0

By DJHasis

posted Jan 29, 2008 - 3:04 PM

Hmm, so do you mean that I should move from my sweet home country from United Arabic Emirates to US so I can watch American tv, listen American music?

Score: 0

By PC_Tool

posted Jan 29, 2008 - 3:31 PM

No, you shouldn't. We have enough. I was simply commenting on how well you'd fit in. :)

Score: 0

By Mystiqq

posted Jan 29, 2008 - 1:58 PM

Where do you live? Im from planet Earth.

Score: 0

By PC_Tool

posted Jan 29, 2008 - 2:13 PM

....so people who act responsibly and respect others must come from some other planet?

Must be a nice place. I bet they don't even *need* things like IP laws.

Score: 0

By Sexbarril

posted Jan 29, 2008 - 5:37 PM

i would like to have a conversation with you at one point.

Seems you make a good case on some things.

That you are on the other side of the fence makes me even more interested in such a converation.

Although it does seem that the whole argument can be taken to its most basic of levels, in which it essentially becomes a " chicken or egg " question.

Do people steal because the laws were made, or were the laws made because people steal? Which came first?

Latz, SB

Score: 0

By PC_Tool

edited Jan 30, 2008 - 9:10 AM

Silly... ;)

It's wrong because we made it wrong. We created copyright, and made the IP *worth* something.

But... laws are laws, rights are rights. It is *still* disrespectful to flat-out ignore the rights we've given the content ownerst, and irresponsible to do so while the current copyright laws are in place.

So the content came first, the laws came second (with good intent), and none of that means squat when determining if infringement=bad. At the heart, it really isn't. But in terms of our agreement with them under copyright law, it is. And doing it is either ignorant, irresponsible, disrespectful, or a combination.

Score: 0

By c4p0ne

posted Jan 29, 2008 - 2:05 PM

Or they could nuke Dusseldorf.. hehe j/k, those tactical-nukes would be much better off being used on the RIAA & MPAA headquarters.

Score: 0

By PC_Tool

edited Jan 29, 2008 - 1:13 PM

Huh...

Filter out all German content and block all German IPs. If they happen to be based in Germany...time to find another base of operations.

Easy peasy.

Never used RapidShare, but one of our main clients uses a similar service frequently to transfer large graphic files.

Score: 0

By daq

posted Jan 29, 2008 - 8:29 PM

Problem is, they are based in Germany...

Score: 0

By PC_Tool

posted Jan 30, 2008 - 8:51 AM

...and I quote:

If they happen to be based in Germany...time to find another base of operations.

Score: 0

By marcomax

edited Jul 9, 2008 - 2:23 AM

Rapidshare problem is part of a wider assault to civil liberties started by the US with Bush self inflicted attack to WTC (as Hitler did with the German Parliament in order to get extraordinary powers, or much back in history, Emperor Nero burning Rome so he could blame christians and feed them to lions). Now all countries are passing laws authorizing phone and net tapping without court order, national security bulls*** laws that authorize long arrest time without charges, and just yesterday, the EU have been asked to pass a law which will make ISPs in power of deciding which programs we can or can't use in the net.

I think we are living in a worldwide "Salem" under a new inquisition which ultimately will completely control every single living being on this planet. If they could implant a microchip directly into our brains and read our minds directly, they would do it.

History recurrently present these dark times, for 800 years our scientific progress have been blocked by the church, they burned books, limited artistic espression and so on... eventually it all ended with revolutions and cutting of few heads.

We are certainly living in that kind of times again, but is OUR fault, because if we say a loud NO all together, and don't let fake terrorism fiction scare us off our rights, if we are willing to fight for our liberty, no one can last long.

Empires can't stand the erosion of time. This empire of corporations, right-wing politic, secret services, NGOs and religious activism will eventually end too.

Meanwhile we can wait, or we can do something about. I choose the second.

Score: 0

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