RapidShare accused of sharing user data
p2pnet news view | P2P | Music:- “If this thing leaks all over the world today or tomorrow, happy days. It’s 2008 and it’s part of how it is these days.”
That was Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich quoted by San Francisco radio station Live 105, last year, on the news the band’s Death Magnetic, was online after “reportedly being sold in a French shop” before its official release.
Now it appears Death Magnetic has become a police magnet.
Ulrich is, of course, infamous as one of the first people to start screaming about the evils of file sharing way back in the Days of Napster — the original, that is, not the dismal corporate failure that’s still trying (unsuccessfully) to capitalise on the name.
RapidShare, a “massive upload destination” allegedly “handed the identity of a user over to a major label in Germany,” says Digital Music News, crediting our friends at Gulli.com over in Germany with the first report.
“RapidShare is accused of handing over an IP address to the requesting label, which then matched that information to the identity of the user in coordination with the ISP,” says the story, adding:
“The information was revealed under the so-called ‘Paragraph 101′ of German copyright law. RapidShare has not offered any official response, though Gulli [Google translation] has posted court documents and other pertinent paperwork.
“The disclosure could form the basis for a broader effort to reveal uploaders in Germany.”
Says Ars Technica:
“The issue came to light after a user claimed that his house was raided by law enforcement thanks to RapidShare, as reported by German-language news outlet Gulli (hat tip). This user had uploaded a copy of Metallica’s new album “Death Magnetic” to his RapidShare account a day before its worldwide release, causing Metallica’s label to work itself into a tizzy and request the user’s personal details (if there’s anything record labels hate, it’s leaks of prerelease albums). It then supposedly asked RapidShare for the user’s IP address, and then asked Deutsche Telekom to identify the user behind the IP before sending law enforcement his way.”
Meanwhile, YouTube is the top site when it comes to hosting illegal content, p2pnet quoted Warner Bros’ Trevor Albery as saying.
And, “in the second, third and fourth and fifth places respectively are Rapidshare, Veoh, Megaupload and Hulu, he said, also stating a third of all Britons are online pirates.
happy days – Metallica, The Pirate Bay interview row, September 4, 2008
Digital Music News – RapidShare: Is This Company Handing Over User Info?, April 27, 2009
p2pnet – YouTube, Hulu, top illegal host sites: Warner Bros, November 19, 2008
Ars Technica – RapidShare hands over user info in Germany, users panic, April 27, 2009
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April 28th, 2009 at 1:30 pm
Sure! Google makes many useful resources available to us that can locate all sorts of copyrighted content. Google is arguably the largest “distributor” (as the MAFIAA would spin it) in this regard.
But, who does Big Content always go after?!… Your dead printer’s grandmother!
April 28th, 2009 at 1:32 pm
also another site can confirm this as a rpg ebook person was handed over for prosecution , and htey are sueing him even htough hes OUT of the USA, ( EXPENSIVE FOR A BOOK NO? )
April 28th, 2009 at 2:51 pm
It is well known for quite some time that Rapidshare has allowed the german branch of the IFPI in appearance of the infamous lawyer Rasch and his ProMedia GmbH total control over the content on Rapidshare.
The Contentindustry has its own admin control panel on the RS system which they proudly bragged about in a YT video already last year (starting minute 3)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F98yFFgaeeQ