Temporary injunction against RapidShare.de

(Dieser Artikel ist auch in deutscher Sprache verfügbar)

The Germany society for musical performing and mechanical reproduction
rights GEMA has obtained temporary injunctions from the District Court in
Cologne against the operator of data exchange services RapidShare.de and
RapidShare.com.

The so-called “sharehosters” services operate in a similar way, allowing
users to upload content on virtual storage space, thus making the respective
content publicly available. They are considered to have used copyrighted
works of GEMA members “in an unlawful fashion”.

GEMA asked from RapidShare’s operator to reveal the number of copyrighted
files of GEMA artists presently stored without license. According to GEMA
spokesman Hans-Herwig Geyer, RapidShare.de has boasted of having some 15
million files available to its users. RapidShare has claimed to have no
control or knowledge of the content uploaded by the users considering it had
no legal responsibility.

Through its injunction the District Court in Cologne has now however made it
clear to the company that the fact that the users and not the operator of
the services were the ones that uploaded the content onto the sites did not,
from a legal point of view, lessen the operator’s liability for copyright
infringements occurred within the context of the services.

GEMA obtains injunctions against data exchange services (19.01.2007)
http://www.heise.de/english/newsticker/news/83948

Double blow dealt against Rapidshare (18.01.2007)
http://www.gema.de/engl/press/press_releases/pm20070118.shtml

GEMA obtains injunctions against RapidShare (20.01.2007)
http://www.afterdawn.com/news/archive/8460.cfm