The German music rights holders asociation GEMA, which is something like the German ASCAP, scored another legal win against the one-click file hoster Rapidshare. GEMA announced in a press release that the Dusseldorf district court ruled this week that Rapidshare is going to have to block access to works from the GEMA repertoire.
Rapidshare has been using the defense that only its users can be held responsible for copyright violations. The Dusseldorf district court disagreed because it found that Rapidshare is mostly used for illegal activities and that the company generates substantial profits from these activities.
According to GEMA, the ruling includes a mandate to stop file transfers even if that means shutting the service down completely. GEMA's press release quotes the ruling with the following words:
"The ruling forces Rapidshare to 'take measures that might have the risk of making Rapidshare's service substantially less attractive or even close it down completely.'"
GEMA won two previous injunctions against Rapidshare, but this is the first time they won an actual court case. It's unclear yet how Rapidshare is going to respond to the ruling. The company running Rapidshare.com is based in Switzerland, but its original Rapidshare.de service was founded in Germany.
Source:
P2P Blog » Rapidshare loses in court, shut-down imminent?
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Crap that would sux.
Im sure most if not all would just move to one of the other share sites but what a pain in the butt.
