RapidShare sues German rights holder association

(Dieser Artikel ist auch in deutscher Sprache verfügbar)

Rapidshare AG sued the German society for musical performing and mechanical
reproduction rights (GEMA) in order to clarify the legal situation regarding
free file hosting in Germany.

The counter-attack from Rapidshare, a well-known free file hosting provider
based in Switzerland, comes after the suit initiated in Germany by GEMA in
January 2007 for distributing MP3 files on Rapidshare.com. GEMA won a
preliminary injunction in the first lawsuit that was upheld by the appeal in
March of the District Court of Cologne.

The District Court in Cologne had considered that Rapidshare was liable for
copyright infringements even if the works were uploaded by the users and not
by the provider.

As a result of the GEMA action, Rapidshare was forced to stop the
distribution of works from the GEMA catalogue and to actively monitor
uploads of these works.

Rapidshare argues that this activity is close to impossible and is not
covered by the German copyright law either. Rapidshare CEO Bobby Chang
considers that people have the right to make backup copies of their music
and that it is practically impossible to distinguish between legal and
unauthorized uses of MP3s.

“We are confident that it is possible to solve the conflict with GEMA while
at the same time paying tribute to innovation” said Chang.

Rapidshare sues rights holders (19.04.2007)
http://www.p2p-blog.com/item-280.html

RapidShare AG press release (only in German, 18.04.2007)
http://www.blogspan.net/377-rapidshare-ag-klagt-gegen-gema-welche-prufungspflichten-hat-ein-webhoster.html

EDRI-gram: Temporary injunction against RapidShare.de (31.01.2007)
http://www.edri.org/edrigram/number5.2/rapidshare