Italian Court Overturns Seizure Of Cyberlocker Rapidgator

from the big-news dept

Thu, May 30th 2013 12:04pm — Mike Masnick

In April we wrote about how Italian law enforcement had blocked over two dozen websites after the industry claimed they were responsible for copyright infringement. There was no trial, no adversarial hearing where the sites were able to defend themselves. Just: entertainment industry complains, law enforcement buys the complaints, tells a judge and boom, site gone. One of the cyberlockers blocked in this effort, Rapidgator, challenged this blockade, and it has quickly won a reversal. Rapidgator's lawyer, Fulvio Sarzana, was kind enough to send us the details, and it appears the court understood why the initial blockade was hugely problematic.

The court overturned the ruling that came out of the investigation, and made a few key points, according to Sarzana. He said that court ruled that cyberlockers are legitimate if they have a notice and takedown system, and that the owner of the site is not liable for infringements done by users (basic secondary liability protections). It also said that the seizure of an entire site goes "against the principles of reasonableness, proportionality and adequacy."

Unfortunately, the ruling only applies to Rapidgator, since it was the only one who hired a lawyer in Italy and appealed. In response to the ruling Sarzana issued the following statement:

The copyright holders contend that the only way in which they can obtain effective relief to prevent, or at least reduce infringements of their copyrights is by means of an order against ISPs. But this is stupid since the concerns about over-blocking, and ease of circumvention are widely recognized. Blocking through the ISPs is not a silver bullet to stop web copyright infringement. It is, in fact, a way to balkanize the web.

Having strong secondary liability protections, as well as basic due process before blocking access to sites would be a huge step in the right direction, so it's good to see an Italian court recognize these basic principles.

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Filed Under: copyright, cyberlockers, due process, italy, secondary liability, seizures
Companies: rapidgator

17 Comments

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out_of_the_blue, 30 May 2013 @ 12:14pm

A victory for pirates, then!
Rapidgator would be forced to go out of business if they examined and removed even 1% of files hosted; they'd just soon run out of stolen content. And kids, that's the ONLY draw those file hosts have, they don't rely on your garage band music to get eyes on ads.
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- Anonymous Coward, 30 May 2013 @ 12:17pm
  
  Re: A victory for pirates, then!
  ""The court overturned the ruling that came out of the investigation, and made a few key points, according to Sarzana. He said that court ruled that cyberlockers are legitimate if they have a notice and takedown system, and that the owner of the site is not liable for infringements done by users (basic secondary liability protections). It also said that the seizure of an entire site goes "against the principles of reasonableness, proportionality and adequacy.""
  
  What part of the court ruling do you not understand!!!
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  - weneedhelp (profile), 30 May 2013 @ 12:34pm
    
    Re: Re: A victory for pirates, then!
    All of it.
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- Zakida Paul (profile), 30 May 2013 @ 12:19pm
  
  Re: A victory for pirates, then!
  A victory for common sense. The technology is NOT at fault, how people use the technology is at fault. Shutting down or blocking a technology because of how people use it is stupid and so are those who advocate such action.
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- Anonymous Coward, 30 May 2013 @ 12:37pm
  
  Re: A victory for pirates, then!
  Rapidgator is a Cyberlocker, you know the digital equivalent of those lockers you see at railway stations. hey are no more responsible for the contents stored on their server than the station is for the contents of their lockers.
  In neither case does the owner of the locker control what goes into the locker, or who is granted access to the contents.
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- Anonymous Coward, 30 May 2013 @ 12:42pm
  
  Re: A victory for pirates, then!
  Your math sucks.
  
  If they removed 1% of files hosted, there's be 99% left. I hardly think a 1% drop would equate to the demise of the site.
  
  Ass.
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- Rikuo (profile), 30 May 2013 @ 12:44pm
  
  Re: A victory for pirates, then!
  It's pretty fucking obvious that you're guilty of every single law on every single law book in every single country. No need for a trial, it would just be a waste of time to drag you into court only to have you defend the indefensible. So I know you'll understand and won't complain when you're up there on the gallows with a noose around your neck that you'll place there with a big grin on your face.
  
  That's what you're arguing for. You don't want trials, you don't want defenses, you just want accusation and the death penalty. "No trial, no jury, just straight to fuckin' execution" is how Vincent Vega said it in Pulp Fiction.
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- Machin Shin (profile), 30 May 2013 @ 12:57pm
  
  Re: A victory for pirates, then!
  " And kids, that's the ONLY draw those file hosts have, they don't rely on your garage band music to get eyes on ads."
  
  You really do a good job of keeping your head deep in some dark place....
  
  The reason I noticed the disappearance of MegaUpload when it got taken down was due to me looking for Android ROMs. You know.... TOTALLY LEGAL CONTENT. Finally had to give up my search because everywhere I would go to look for the roms I would find they had been hosted on Mega.
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- Anonymous Coward, 30 May 2013 @ 1:46pm
  
  Re: A victory for pirates, then!
  Can I get proof of that? You put out a lot of conclusions with no basis for fact. I have 2 file locker accounts and absolutely nothing infringes and nearly all of it is content I created.
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- Anonymous Coward, 30 May 2013 @ 3:34pm
  
  Re: A victory for pirates, then!
  It's not their job or place to snoop through files hosted on their servers. All files should be considered private whether they're publicly available or not. I realize if people wanted it to be 100% private they'd encrypt it but it's bad PR to just say we're looking at everything you upload.
  
  That said I'll say it again.
  Fuck off.
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- btr1701 (profile), 30 May 2013 @ 4:09pm
  
  Re: A victory for pirates, then!
  > And kids, that's the ONLY draw those file hosts have
  
  Which is bullshit on its face. I use a cyberlocker all the time to transfer large files (photos, videos, compositions, etc.) that *I* create (which means non-infringing) to family and friends.
  
  In fact, such a service is the only practical way to do it, since my ISP puts ridiculously low file-size limits on email attachments.
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- Anonymous Coward, 30 May 2013 @ 6:31pm
  
  Re: A victory for pirates, then!
  In summary: U mad, bro?
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Anonymous Coward, 30 May 2013 @ 12:20pm

All we need now is for the NZ court to rule exactly the same regarding Megaupload if they haven't done so already and tell the US what they can do with their extradition request!
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Anonymous Coward, 30 May 2013 @ 1:14pm

'Having strong secondary liability protections, as well as basic due process before blocking access to sites would be a huge step in the right direction'

so would it be good if the industries concerned actually did two other things.
a) actually took notice of the problems pointed out to it so it could then use it's own money rather than everyone else to achieve a sensible solution

b) listened to the concerns and the wants of customers so it could give what the ask, almost beg for, instead of giving what the industries themselves THINK they want and are prepared to give, thus keeping them 10years behind the times, so to speak
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Anonymous, 30 May 2013 @ 3:11pm

Nearly everything on Rapidgator of late is a scam. It seems every "album" I've wanted to download from Rapidgator over the past few months has actually been an executable. Whoever has been posting them must think we're pretty stupid. My advice is to avoid Rapidgator.
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Wolfy, 30 May 2013 @ 4:16pm

I happen to like pirates... they look cool with the eyepatch and the parrot perched on the shoulder.
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- Anonymous, 30 May 2013 @ 4:34pm
  
  Re:
  And we're always searchin' for booty!
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