Rapidshare, one of the largest file hosters in the world, is currently under heavy fire in Germany. The Gema, which administers the music rights of more than 60,000 members as well as those of over 1 million rights owners from all corners of the world managed to get a court ruling in its favor.
The court ruled (German website) that the hoster can be held responsible for copyright violations committed by users who upload copyrighted material to Rapidshare servers. The court furthermore ruled that Rapidshare had to implement filters that would prevent further copyright violations.
GEMA's Chief Executive Officer Dr. Harald Heker commented: "The Court's decision confirms that it cannot be the task of the rights owners to control at their own cost the continued operation of services, which generate commercial profit from unlawful use of their work. This decision will also send out a major signal to all services enlisting the help of the individual users to create a comprehensive illegal offer and then in the end to use this offer for generating revenue for themselves".
Rapidshare announced the same day that they would appeal the ruling. The current ruling would have a drastic impact on every company that would operate from Germany (Europe) offering free disk space to their users.
It is also important to note that it is technically impossible to check every uploaded file for copyright violations, not only because of technical restrictions. It is for instance perfectly legal to upload a private copy of an album to make it available to close friends. How can an algorithm decide whether the album upload is permitted or not?
It is in my opinion ridiculous to demand that Rapidshare, or any other company or individual who is providing webspace, is responsible for the copyright infringements of users who upload copyrighted files to the service. This would essentially mean that every web space provider can be held responsible if users of their service are uploading files to the service to share it with others.
I'm starting to get sick of this kind of news... well, next will see the banks sue the car and guns manufacturers because someone robed the bank using a gun and run away in a car made by that manufacturers.
I can sure understand the gema politics'. But I don't like it. Gema just want to close gaps of copyright violation. I'm sure that many people in the internet don't want to pay anything for media, but there won't be a way to write music or shoot blockbuster for free.
I say there will always be a way to get what you want!
Of course Rapidshare makes his business on the copyrighted material ! And it's what makes it so famous and huge ! What are users go find on Rapidshare other than movies, albums or softwares that are just released on DVD or CD, and even before they are ? What I wonder is how could Rapidshare grow so much and how it can still be active ?
is clear insofar. It is illegal to upload copyrighted material for download. Rapidshare must not knowingly help. But copyright is not so much a monopoly of distribution in Germany. It is perfectly legal to share music beyond the music business, see para 53 UrhG. What Sony vs. Universal was in the US, were audio tape recorders in Germany a long time before. Para 53 UrHG says that library building is legal. Time-shifting, bah....
We can say, that the para 19a UrhG, the letter a tells us that it is a new law, is owed to international conventions. Insofar the case would not be different in the US or whereever. Protection of copyright must be effectiv.
But the exact content of international conventions is dark. Regulations like para 53 UrhG are recognised too! And it could be asked whether it make a difference, in the light of para 53 UrhG, that analog copies have gone digital today and sharing has become easier in times of the net.
And: we should not forget the real impact of rapidshare. Some hundret downloads for hits and much less for other stuff, until it gets expired.
So when the day is over, there is not much to care about, even in the light of international conventions. The German lawgiver of para 19a UrhG was to fast. Sort of war against terror, axis of evil etc aka much ado about nothing.