Rapidshare could be closed?

29th February 2008

Popular file sharing service Rapidshare faced serious challenge. Dusseldorf District Court pronounced a sentence, which stated that, the owners of Rapidshare are responsible for the distribution of piratic content. The suit against the popular service has been filed by German organization GEMA, which is known in the country as the fighter for copyrights.
Commenting on the writ, representative of the organization noted that Rapidshare actually earns money by distributing pirate content, which, of course, must be punished by the law.
The writ states that Rapidshare is obliged to use filters in order to prevent download of pirate content, otherwise the service would be suppressed.
From their part, the representatives of Rapidshare insist on the fact that responsible for the distribution of piratic film, software, music, etc., is the person who downloads unauthorized content. The representatives of Rapidshare intend to defend this point of view in a court of higher instance, where they have already appealed.