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Rapidshare Restricting Anonymous Uploads To Only 10 Downloads

Few hours ago in my previous post I shared some good news for Rapidshare users but now its time for the bad one, It seems that legal copyright proceedings against Rapidshare has made the world's topmost file-sharing website restrict the number of anonymously uploaded content to a maximum of ten downloads.

Rapidshare Download Limit

This action seems to be taken because of the earlier ruling by German court asking Rapidshare to log and check IP numbers of potential copyright infringer's.

From now, any anonymously uploaded file on Rapidshare can only be downloaded for a maximum ten times and after reaching the limit following error is shown:

Error

This file is neither allocated to a Premium Account, or a Collector's Account, and can therefore only be downloaded 10 times.

This limit is reached.

To download this file, the uploader either needs to transfer this file into his/her Collector's Account, or upload the file again. The file can later be moved to a Collector's Account. The uploader just needs to click the delete link of the file to get further information.


However, Rapidshare's Official word on this is quite confusing telling they WILL NOT control the uploads:

RapidShare will not control Uploads

160 million files have already been uploaded to RapidShare. A number that proves, that the world depends on moving important data from A to B. A number that also proves, that RapidShare with its fast and easy services also addresses users that are no computer nerds.
RapidShare is the first technology worldwide that made sending big files so easy, so fast and so secure. The files can be stored as long as needed and can be recalled from anywhere in the world, they are strictly confidential and can only be accessed by the user that originally loaded them up, or alternatively can be distributed among thousands of people quickly and easily.
With a couple of billion page impressions per day we know, that we as a leader will have to pave the way for this new technology. We are aware of the fact that we therefore have big responsibility. If, for example, it had been regulated by law to control all copies before the first photo copier was invented, it is very likely that these machines would have never hit the market. That's why we are doing everything to enable this new technology - which is still very young, but already inspires millions of people every day - to be part of our future and make life more comfortable.
The security of personal data is very important to us, especially in these times. That's the reason why we will not spy out the files that our clients faithfully upload onto RapidShare, not now nor in future. We are against upload control and guarantee you that your files are safe with us and will not be opened by anyone else than yourself, unless you distribute the download link. RapidShare, of course, is against the distribution of illegal files and as soon as we are informed about illegal distribution, we delete these files and put them on a filter. But the general control of uploads is out of the question for us, because we think that especially in these times data privacy comes first.

Comments

Why did you write "anonymously uploaded" in bold letters?

In practice all uploads on RapidShare are STILL anonymous!
The only thing that has changed is that now you need to click on "create collectors account" and enter a text-string containing an "@" and a dot in the e-mail-address box to get unlimited downloads.

Yeah - very NOT anonymous...

PS: This is not an anonymous posting, my e-mail-address is:

sdkfjsdkflj@wthingrkl.fnkdfj

If you read the German Court ruling against Rapidshare :

http://www.megaleecher.net/Rapidshare_Legal_Court_Battle_For_Copyright_Issues

You will find that court requires RS to log IP of all copyright infringer's, even if you make a fake collector's account what you are uploading from what IP is still trackable as a group, so if you are uploading too much copyrighted content the account can be deleted and you can be prosecuted based on your IP address, having a sdkfjsdkflj@wthingrkl.fnkdfj email address or creating a new email id or even using a disposable email id is not the question here !!

I hope now you got the point,, I tried to convey ??

P.S: Yes your posting is not anonymous, I know you posted from : Sweden, Having IP - 83.233.181.210 Via - BREDBAND2-NET-SE ISP.

If you read the ACTUAL court-ruling instead of internet rumours on foreign language pages, you will find that the court does NOT support any claims, that could force RapidShare to hand out the IP-addresses of copyright-infringers, since this could collide with German privacy laws.
Furthermore RapidShare.com is a company from Switzerland (not Germany!), so isn’t even clear if they could enforce any claims, even if the court would support them.

The court-ruling:
http://www.webhosting-und-recht.de/urteile/Oberlandesgericht-Hamburg-20080702.html

[quote]
Die Antragsgegner sind auf ihre datenschutzrechtlichen Ausführungen in der zweiten Instanz nicht mehr substantiiert zurückgekommen, so dass auch der Senat keine Veranlassung hat, sich aus Anlass dieses Rechtsstreits mit den komplexen datenschutzrechtlichen Fragen im Zusammenhang mit dem TMG näher zu befassen. Der vorliegende Rechtsstreit bietet dem Senat insbesondere keine Veranlassung, sich mit der in der Rechtsprechung zum Teil kontrovers erörterten Frage (siehe z. B. AG Berlin CR 08, 194) zu befassen, ob bzw. unter welchen Voraussetzungen IP-Adressen von Nutzern gespeichert oder gar herausgegeben werden dürfen.
[/quote]

Instead of that the court suggests that RapidShare should internally protocol static IP-addresses or ask users with dynamic IP to register an account to ban or "pro-actively" deep-inspect all future uploads of static IPs or accounts, which already committed copyright infringements in the past, since they count as "repeat offenders".

An article on futurezone.orf.at lead to rumours that RapidShare will follow the court orders and control future uploads. RapidShare finally reacted to those rumours with their "RapidShare will not control Uploads" statement.

http://futurezone.orf.at/it/stories/316067
http://rapidshare.com/news.html

For me it looks like the may choose the other way and block accounts of copyright infringements for future uploads to please the court. But in fact nothing will change, since you can register an infinite number of new accounts and the same day they announced that "Files that are stored completely anonymous can now only be downloaded 10 times." they also introduced the "FileMigrator" which allows you to move files from collectors account to collectors account
- guess why ;)

Oh - and RapidShare logged the IP-addresses of uploaders since the very beginning of their service (in case of terrorist uploading bomb-plans or whatever). So in practice the October 23. changes changed nothing!

PS: The sentence was the outcome of the case: IBM vs. RapidShare, that dealt with the copyright infringement of IBM-software on rapidshare.de. It had absolutely nothing to do with the GEMA, like you stated.

PPS: About my oh so non-anonymous IP-address ;)
I recommend you to check the records for those addresses again with:

http://whatismyipaddress.com/staticpages/index.php/lookup-ip

To download this file, the uploader either needs to transfer this file into his/her Collector's Account, or upload the file again. The file can later be moved to a Collector's Account. The uploader just needs to click the delete link of the file to get further information.

please, get me download software

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