Rapidshare not responsible for user upload - German+US court

RapidShare Wins in Court

A German appeals court recently dismissed a lower court verdict against Switzerland-based one-click host site RapidShare, noting that the company can’t be held responsible for the actions of its users. The Dusseldorf-based court also found that there are no reasonable ways for RapidShare to control file uploads without possibly restricting local fair use laws.

Rapidhare had been sued by a rights holder for distributing copies of movies like An American Crime and Eagle vs. Shark, and a lower court issued a preliminary injunction against the file hoster last summer. That injunction followed similar court decisions against RapidShare in lawsuits waged by music and e-book rights holders. However, the Dusseldorf-based court was not impressed with the arguments in these cases, noting instead that “most people utilize RapidShare for legal use cases.”

The court decision, which was published a few days ago, points out that RapidShare is not operating any type of index or search engine that would make files stored on its service publicly accessible. Instead, it’s the users that decide whether or not to publish a link to files they have uploaded — and the fact that some of them abuse the service is not enough to sanction RapidShare itself.

German law does provide the ability to go after companies that willfully enable infringement, which has some implications for forum owners and file hosters, one of them being that a hoster has to not only take down specific copies of an infringing file, but also try to prevent further copies from being uploaded. However, RapidShare won’t have to try too hard. The Dusseldorf-based court found that it’s easy to circumvent any upload filters and than manual control of all uploads is simply not feasible.

The court also brought up an interesting point: German copyright allows users to make copies of movies and music files for their own use, as well as to share them with a limited number of close acquaintances. Automated filters would make it impossible for users to save a legal backup copy of a movie on RapidShare’s servers.

RapidShare has been fighting with rights holders in courts for years, but the company has also in recent months made some attempts to appease entertainment companies and help the monetize their content. It premiered a movie download service last December, and its CEO recently told rights holders that he wants to help them sell content to RapidShare users.

Rapidshare claims victory in the USA

Rapidshare claims it won another landmark court case, this time in a US court. An online provider of NSFW T&A content called Perfect 10 had filed a case with a disctrict court in California's Southern District against Rapidshare and tried to get an injunction against the Swiss file hoster. Perfect 10 claimed Rapidshare offered its subscribers all sorts of copyrighted works for download, which would distort competition at the expense of honest-to-god companies such as Perfect 10.

The court decided Perfect 10's case had no merit whatsoever and threw it out, stating Rapidshare
is a file hoster and can't be charged on basis of copyright claims. Perfect 10 didn't even give any proof of infringements, no files or links were included in its writ. It seems filing a case without any proof and mistaking a file hoster for some sort of T&A Napster isn't a very clever move.

"The view is gradually spreading that Rapidshare doesn't promote copyright infringements. It is a milestone that this is now recognised in the USA," commented Rapidshare's founder Christian Schmid.

Rapidshare recently won a landmark case in Germany. DVD label Capelight Pictures received an injunction from a regional court, after the company complained users had uploaded movies to Rapidshare. A higher court trashed the injunction saying Rapidshare could not be held accountable for supposed infringements of its users. Security measures implemented by Rapidshare were also deemed to be sufficient, as links to files could not be guessed, nor were files indexed and searchable.

It seems right holders slowly have to get used to the fact that a platform like Rapidshare is a legal business that simply won't go away, even if they try banishing it in court - just like any technology deemed detrimental to ancient business models from the 1970ies, an age before cassettes and VHS tapes existed.

Perfect 10 must have a massive legal team. Surprised they haven't tried to sue anyone using either "perfect" or "ten" yet...