OK, this may be a rumor...

I found this on another site, and the guy that posted it is a regular there. Does anybody know anything about this?

Date: 06:54:05 on Sunday, March 26, 2006
Name: DALEK
Subject: Big Troublefor RS users...

Date: 05:59:43 on Sunday, March 26, 2006
Name: GAWD . . . .
Subject: RapidShare to turn over IP addresses

Message:
i just seen on G4 tv program news that several file sharing companys have been under fire from RIAA,the movie companys,bmg records.2 file sharing companys i know of rapidshare and turboshare both are being sued for millions and both companys have agreed in the suit to turn over all their records[saving their butts by selling yours out.]they said this could be the biggest hand over to date since the record companys has started going after companys.both companys have said nothing about what they plain to do about notifying its custmers.by their contracts they DONT HAVE TO refund any money.
phonelines have been so busy at both companys waiting time has been in the hours.
i have been trying to get through about my account and all i get is a recording.i noticed in a few test tho that the company is still taking orders.
be careful my friends.i think i'm going to back away for awhile.
have fun

Message:
found this today on a movie blog.the link for the
article is from a UK on line newspaper.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,13509-2100973,00.html

Two years in prison for downloading latest film

From Roger Boyes in Berlin

GERMANS risk two years in prison if they illegally download films and music for
private use under a new law agreed yesterday. Anybody who downloads films for
commercial use could be jailed for up to five years.

The measures, some of the toughest in Europe, were announced after an aggressive
campaign by the film industry in Germany, the largest market in the EU and one
of the most computer-literate populations.

According to film industry estimates, Germans download more than 20 million
films a year. Many expect the next James Bond film, Casino Royale, to be widely
available in Germany weeks before its official release in November.

The law, which comes into effect on January 1, 2007, has infuriated consumer
groups. They claim that it will turn consumers into criminals and harm the
Government’s efforts to create a knowledge-based economy.

Patrick von Braunmühl, of the Federation of German Consumer Organisations, said:
“This sends a completely wrong signal to society. It criminalises consumers and
will deeply disturb internet users.

“It can’t be that everyone has to be worried now about the police knocking on
the door and impounding the family computer because their 16-year-old son has
downloaded a few songs.”

Brigitte Zypries, the Justice Minister, defended the law. “The aim is not now to
slap handcuffs on downloaders in the school playground,” she said. But if
someone downloaded a film before it reached the cinemas it was obvious that they
were responding to an illegal offer and breaking the law, she said. Frau Zypries
has ruled that it will still be legal to copy a legitimately bought DVD for
limited private use.

Günther Krings, the Christian Democrat legal affairs spokesman, said: “There
should be no legal distinction between stealing chewing gum from a shop and
performing an illegal download.”

Enforcement will be left to the state prosecutor. Authorities hunting internet
pirates will be able to pass on details to film and music producers who can then
inform the police.

Many Germans watch the latest Hollywood film at home before it has reached the
cinemas; parents’ evenings sometimes end with a showing of an illegally copied
film in the school gym.

The German music industry also claims to be suffering from piracy. The recording
industry suffered a fall in turnover in 2005 for the seventh year in a row to
€1.7 billion (£1.2 billion). Sales have fallen almost 45 per cent since 1998.
The German branch of the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry
estimates that the equivalent of 439 million music CDs were copied illegally in
Germany last year.

agnomenamedgrimblekrumble wrote:

I think the important thing mentioned here agnomenamedgrimblekrumble is the word commercial. in Australia I have noticed that not many people downloading for their own private use are troubled only commercial pirateers. and the second part is especially to your above statement

agnomenamedgrimblekrumble wrote:

I see your point, Sir_D. Maybe I felt a small amount of hysteria for a moment. = 0~ I just don't like the idea of ip's being turned over for ANY reason! And it's conceivable to think that the porn industry people would get hip to the idea of chasing the people who traded their copywrited material, much the same way the Hollywood movie makers are. To find out who is trading it would be very easy, and facing lawsuits, many of these servers would cave in quickly. ...ok, I should shutup and go back to the video section, huh?! = O~

I think this kind of thing is bullshit! All they do is make an example out of a few people, usually the biggest offenders. and then nothing happens.
I mean honestly if everyone got arrested for DL something they weren't supposed to, two thirds of the population would be in prison.

From another story on this subject:

"The RIAA does not give two shits about the copyrights owned by non-RIAA artists. It’s when you get into the Avril Lavigne and Clay Aiken MP3s where the RIAA perceive that they are losing money."

The "handover", if there is to be one, will be for the pupose of looking for ill-eagling downloaded music, not porn.

vectra wrote:

Yes , true but once there in there dontcha think ????? hmmm.. lets see what we have here OMG , Then out come the Nazis!

To me its just more loss of freedome , maybe its time to move ??

mistermandingo wrote:

Of course! You should move to Germany!

I've been wanting to move ever since I was like 15, But where too?
It just seems that everything I love to do is Illegal. Skateboarding=Illegal
Smokeing pot=Illegal. I've been runninng from the cops since I was a
****! and the whole time wondering why me, a good person was
viewed as an outlaw by society. I've since givin up on moving, I'd rather stay and try to make things change. There are a lot of people like me, but they are to busy keeping secrets. and its hurting the rest of us!
Stand up fools and be yourself.

censored = lagelli

Dayfan wrote:


in germany it´s getting worse and worse. you better stay where you are. have you heard about the trouble in france? burning cars and all that shit? if it goes on in germany like this, we will be the next ones fighting the cops and burning cars. we have 12,2% unemployed people. if you are not a very rare specialist, be sure you will not get a job. the mood is very bad here. if i could i would go to newsealand or australia

Well, I'm jist a country boy, but it sure seems to me that all this noise, from the RIAA fat cats to the exis getting water-cannoned on the Champs,
has to do with that ol' bugaboo: globalization.
The genie's out of the bottle, the toothpaste's out of the tube, we're supposed to be thinking out of the box, and everybody's scrambling for what's left of the pie.
Metaphorically speaking, of course.

ROFL. You sound like Yogi Berra.

"When you come to a fork in the road, take it."
"It ain't over till it's over."
"Nobody comes to this restaurant any more cause it's too busy."
"You can observe a lot by watching."
"Now listen to me - slowly."
"If the world was perfect, it wouldn't be."
"Never answer an anonymous letter."
"It's deja vu all over again."
"I didn't really say everything I said."
"The future ain't what it used to be."
"It gets late early out here."
"90 per cent of baseball is mental and the other half is physical."
"It's a good idea to go to other people's funerals, because if you don't, they won't go to yours."

And my favourite Yogi-ism:
When told by presidential wife Mamie Eisenhower how cool he looked on a broiling July day, he responded, "You don't look so hot yourself."

= )~ You brought a big smile to my face with the Yogi-isms, Elmo! And to think, he was a three time MVP!!!

To even be mentioned in the same breath as the great Berra is an honor, doubly so by being so mentioned by the GreenFather hisself.

Yeah well you don't look so hot yourself.

......move to New Zealand or Australia......well considering the wonderful Prime Minister of Australia has his head stuck up G. Bush's ass and is now going about changing Industrial Relations laws to heavily favour employers (It's already happening within a week of these laws becoming operative, people are being dismissed for no reason at all!), maybe New Zealand would be the go. As somebody who has lived in New Zealand for a couple of years, that would make perfect sense to me, and if Australia keeps going the way it is, thanks to globalisation, then I won't be hanging around too long either. I always did like Auckland........

The world is such a wonderful place really, apart from the assholes that have fucked it up!