RapidShare Ruled Legal... Yet Again
from the worst-of-the-worst? dept
While the entertainment industry has declared RapidShare to be one of the worst of the worst websites when it comes to copyright infringement, it's notable that the site continues to rack up legal victories. We've covered how it's been vindicated in lawsuits in the US and in Europe, where it's been noted that the site takes down infringing content when made aware of it, and has plenty of non-infringing uses (and users).Now there's yet another ruling in favor of RapidShare, this time in Germany, where the Higher Regional Court of Dusseldorf ruled (again) that RapidShare takes "sufficient measures" to stop copyright infringement, in a case brought by Atari. Similar to Viacom in its lawsuit against YouTube, Atari suggested that RapidShare should be required to install a proactive filter, but the court said such a requirement would be unreasonable, since it might also block legitimate works.
Of course, with the US pushing for laws like COICA and standing behind questionable domain name seizures based on faulty evidence, it seems like this, once again, shows how unreasonable it is to simply listen to the RIAA or MPAA and accept their word as clear proof of infringement. As the courts are showing here, just because some industry rep claims a site is the "worst of the worst," it doesn't mean it's actually violating the law.
Filed Under: contributory infringement, copyright, germany, third party
Companies: atari, rapidshare