Rapidshare targeted by GEMA
p2pnet.net News:- German collections agency GEMA says it’s won temporary injunctions against the operator of data exchange services www.rapidshare.de and www.rapidshare.com. “The latter is said to have used copyright protected works of GEMA members in an unlawful fashion,” says Heise Online.
“The services make virtual storage space available into which users can upload content that is thereby made publicly available to other users. GEMA spokesman Hans-Herwig Geyer told Heise GEMA is now demanding details, “on how many copyright protected works of GEMA members are currently stored on the said sites”.
RapidShare says it had no knowledge of content uploaded and wasn’t able to control it, says the story, going on:
“Through its injunctions the District Court in Cologne had now however made it clear to the company that the fact that it was the users and not the operator of the services that uploaded the content onto the sites did not, from a legal point of view, lessen the operator`s liability for copyright infringements that occurred within the context of the services”.
Also See:
Heise Online – GEMA obtains injunctions against data exchange services, January 19, 2007
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January 23rd, 2007 at 7:54 am
I really hope that Rapidshare isn’t forced offline. I depend on it.
January 24th, 2007 at 12:46 am
If they should be successful it will mean that p2p will take another route. That will in turn mean that p2p will go underground. Those that now find it easy to find data will see the doors closed to the unknown potential candidate.
It won’t mean that it will stop, it will only mean it will be harder to find. I’ve seen this sort of turtle reaction before at other times. If you’re known in some places, the doors are open. If not, the doors are closed.
There is one other thing this will result in should it be successful. Times in the past have shown it to be true. When Napster was sued out of existance it was on the theme that it was a centralized server and therefore under direct control by Napster. New p2p applications came out after that without centralizing. So the case taught the developers not to do the centralized thing.
If Rapidshare goes through the same thing, what ever ruling will teach others what to do or not to do making it harder the next time to make the same case.
January 25th, 2007 at 8:59 pm
.com seems to be down ,but .de is still up