RapidShare AG was established in 2006. This Swiss-based company hosts information – both for private individuals and corporates. The system works by simply logging onto their system and loading your data in a few cicks via Rapidshare’s “1 click hosting”. They then are given a link at which the user can download data again or delete it. Like many other such companies, in fact, really (YouSendIt springs to mind, used for SENDING data – to yourself if required).
Rapidshare has repeatedly been challenged to control content uploaded, mainly by the music industry who believe it is being used to copy music files and share them illegally. In fact, it has repeatedly been on the naughty step regarding this, and the legal costs must surely be hitting this company hard. Last year, the District Court in Cologne decided that Rapidshare was liable for copyright infringements for works uploaded as MP3 files by users, and Rapidshare then counter-sued the German society for musical performing and mechanical reproduction rights (GEMA) in response, to clarify the legal situation.
But as a result of the GEMA action, Rapidshare was required to stop all distribution of works from the GEMA catalogue and to actively monitor uploads of these works. The company claims that this activity is close to impossible (I certainly wouldn’t like that job – how on earth can you check?) and it also says that this isn’t covered by German copyright law in any event. Rapidshare’s CEO Bobby Chang has always advocated the view that users have the right to make a backup copy of music and that it is all but impossible to tell whether an individual MP3 is legal or unauthorized.
The company has stated publicly that they have good technical and legal reasons for their claim. To begin with, we all know that there are no technical filters or human checks that can prove the intended use of an uploaded file (short of telepathy that is), so they therefore cannot tell a legally permitted copy from one intended for illegal distribution. German copyright law, paragraph 53, defines a private copy as legal.
Add to this the fact that users can encrypt files, archiving them with passwords to ensure make monitoring them almost impossible, it’s easy to see why Rapidshare must be tearing their hair out!
Mr Chang said, “We are confident that it is possible to solve the conflict with GEMA while at the same time paying tribute to innovation… 160 million files have already been uploaded to RapidShare. A number that proves that the world depends on moving important data from A to B …We have established the first technology worldwide that made sending big files this easy, this fast and this secure. Millions of people use it every day. As with any new technology the result does not please everyone and they call for control. Our point of view regarding this is clear: We are against monitoring uploads and stand for data privacy. There will be no control of uploads at RapidShare. At the same time we stand up against the illegal distribution of copyrighted files and will proceed to do everything we can to prevent that, except for monitoring uploads. By the way, the latter would not make sense in Germany anyway, because of the legitimacy of private copies.”
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