Rapidshare stung with €24m fine

[G)-(OST]

Rapidshare is in trouble, but I think they can afford it.

[jagabo]

That story may be in error. From what I've read, they weren't fined 24 M Euro. GEMA simply claimed the songs they found at Rapidshare were worth 24 M Euro. Rapidshare was simply ordered to start filtering all uploads.

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2009/06/achtung-rapidshare-hit-with-24m-fine-c...lter-rules.ars

[mh2360]

Are they refering to Rapidshare.com or Rapidshare.de?

From what I know (and I could be wrong), they are two separate entities, .de is based in Germany and .com is based in Switzerland.

I'm assuming that the one in the story is .de, since it's unlikely that a German court would have any jurisdiction over a Swiss based company.

Dr. Harald Heker, the boss of GEMA, said in a statement that "the decision of the Landgericht Hamburg [Hamburg Regional Court] is a milestone in GEMA's fight against the illegal use of musical works on the Internet. GEMA will continue to protect its members from online piracy. We are confident that we can reduce the illegal usage of GEMA's repertoire on the Internet to negligible levels."

Good luck with that...

[mh2360]

double post...

[jagabo]

The GEMA press release says Rapidshare.com.
http://www.gema.de/en/press/press-releases/press-release/?tx_ttnews[tt_news]=841

[G)-(OST]

That story may be in error.

Looks like you are right jagabo, I have seen it elsewhere stating what you just mentioned, thanks for rectifying.

[mh2360]

Rapidshare.com's central office is indeed located in Cham, Switzerland.

I'm no legal-eagle, so i'm not sure what powers a German court has in this situation, very little I would assume.

[DereX888]

If GEMA (and RIAA and other shitheads) could had it their way, we all would have to pay each and every time we hear any song or music on the radio or even in the elevator...

They can rig all the laws any way they want. Have any courts rule anything.
Yet no one on the web gives a shit about it anyways


Rapidshare can afford it (any one of them).

[lacywest]

I keep my subscription going with Rapidshare and hotfiles

[Seeker47]

I keep my subscription going with Rapidshare and hotfiles

This is just a neutral observer's comment, so, ROF (if you're still lurking somewhere), I don't need to hear back from you or any of your minions: In my opinion, the value of RS is severely compromised by how often, how widely, and how quickly they pull stuff -- for whatever reasons. There is an excellent chance that any given RS link is going to be useless, a day or two after it was posted. For THIS we're supposed to buy a subscription ? Don't think so. The court cases are sure to make this worse. But the other file-host services may be in the same boat.

[Supreme2k]

ROF has long been taken care of.

I kind of agree, though. I've had files taken down a day or two later that originated directly from me (no mp3, avi or iso), for no apperent reason. They had the standard "the file is believed to contain illegal content" message. Really? A DIY Word document with recently taken photos to illustrate the process is illegal? (adding an AC adapter to a portable device)