Rapidshare must filter some textbooks

Rapidshare must filter some textbooks
Large textbook publishers Bedford, Freeman & Worth and Macmillan, Cengage Learning, Elsevier, The McGraw-Hill Companies and Pearson filed a lawsuit against file sharing host Rapidshare earlier this month, and today have gained an injunction, meaning the service must now proactively filter about 150 textbook titles, or face a hefty fine.

The suit cited all 148 titles to which the publishers owned the copyright, and demanded that digital copies be taken down, and not allowed to be distributed at all.



Because of the new injunction, if any of the books is ever found available on Rapidshare, the company could face a fine up to 250,000 euros.

"This ruling is an important step forward. Not only does it affirm that file-sharing copyrighted content without permission is against the law, but it attaches a hefty financial punishment to the host, in this case Rapidshare, for noncompliance," adds Tom Allen, CEO of the Association of American Publishers, via TF. "Consider this a shot across the bow for others who attempt to profit from the theft of copyrighted works online."

Written by: Andre Yoskowitz @ 24 Feb 2010 22:56
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  • 14 comments
  • jony218

    They can take out rapidshare, but then something else will pop out in it's place.
    They took out napster years ago, but it's many clones are still alive and kicking.
    This is a war that will never be won. The only thing that might occur is that rapidshare just got some free publicity. Many people never even heard of rapidshare, but they have now.

    24.2.2010 23:43 #1

  • vontratt

    Oh no, now they will obfuscate the file names.


    25.2.2010 00:02 #2

  • ntense69

    i can think of better items to get with my rapidshare account

    25.2.2010 00:22 #3

  • nonoitall

    Originally posted by vontratt: Oh no, now they will obfuscate the file names.
    Exactly. How many people actually search Rapidshare itself for files anyway? People get links from third-party sites and it doesn't make a bit of difference what the name of the file on Rapidshare happens to be.

    25.2.2010 01:24 #4

  • chrialex

    Someone uploads a book, five minutes later a rep from one of the companies sees it, there goes some more money. Hope there is a grace period in that lawsuit, otherwise no matter if they try to comply...so long Rapidshare

    25.2.2010 06:56 #5

  • dappy123

    It's so very simple. The publishers are not unlike the music and entertainment industry. They will fight to the end their ability to satisfy their G-R-E-E-D! Go to their websites and see what they charge students and professionals. Many are priced at $80 to over $100. This is another legal monopoly.

    25.2.2010 07:51 #6

  • pmshah

    Quote:Originally posted by vontratt: Oh no, now they will obfuscate the file names.
    Exactly. How many people actually search Rapidshare itself for files anyway? People get links from third-party sites and it doesn't make a bit of difference what the name of the file on Rapidshare happens to be.
    There is no facility on Rapidshare to search for files directly. A number of sites have cropped up which probably harvest the web and get all the related link to build a database that you can search.

    It is essentially a file repository to enable file transfers among people. How people use it is a different story. With applications like jDownloader where the Rapidshare or whatever host it might be the end user does not get to see the links at all nor the password used. If the file names used are cryptic then Rapidshare can do nothing, nor the original copy right holders.

    BTW the books are so over priced people will resort to all available avenues. I did my BSEE and BSME in US and and so did my daughter - in Computer science and Mathematics. We almost always got Asian editions, from back home. We saved over 80% in cost over original US publications.

    My second daughter ia a consultant in HR. She mneeds some books priced at around US$ 700/- to 800/=. Guess what I am likely to do.

    25.2.2010 07:52 #7

  • anto_aac

    RapidShare will never go away, file names will get changed, files will get re-uploaded! It's a cycle that will never end. Most people have fresh links ready for when their other links get banned!





    25.2.2010 10:19 #8

  • Unlockneo

    good. i hate Rapidshare. i have to wait every 15 min. to download one file at a time. i prefer megaupload or mediafire which is way better.

    25.2.2010 11:52 #9

  • Pop_Smith

    Originally posted by Unlockneo: good. i hate Rapidshare. i have to wait every 15 min. to download one file at a time. i prefer megaupload or mediafire which is way better.The wait times aren't that bad but I agree with you. Places like MegaUpload are better and becoming more popular.

    25.2.2010 13:45 #10

  • DVDBack23

    Quote:Originally posted by Unlockneo: good. i hate Rapidshare. i have to wait every 15 min. to download one file at a time. i prefer megaupload or mediafire which is way better.The wait times aren't that bad but I agree with you. Places like MegaUpload are better and becoming more popular.Rapidshare is great, when you have a Premium account :)

    25.2.2010 18:13 #11

  • Pop_Smith

    Originally posted by DVDBack23: Rapidshare is great, when you have a Premium account :)I'll bet RapidShare is better than almost any other service if you have an account. However, in my opinion, the shorter wait times and faster speed on MegaUpload beat RS if you are a free user.

    25.2.2010 20:43 #12

  • nonoitall

    Megaupload is my favorite for free use too. When using JDownloader it's almost as good as (paid) newsgroups for me.

    25.2.2010 22:47 #13

  • catfreak

    Every file I upload to RapidShare has the same simple file name . . .

    26.2.2010 09:04 #14

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