German court slaps ban on file sharing website

A German court has given six international publishing companies a significant victory in their attempt to combat digital piracy.

The Landgericht Regional Court of Hamburg, Germany has ruled that the file Swiss-based sharing site Rapidshare must implement measures to prevent illegal file sharing. The court ruled that Rapidshare, one of the largest filing share sites of printed works, must monitor its site to ensure that copyrighted material is not uploaded and prevent unauthorized access to the material. Failure to comply will result in substantial penalties.

Although the decision directly affects only 148 titles, publishers hope that the speed in which the German court ruled will persuade Rapidshare to abide by copyright laws. "The German legal system moved quickly," noted Association of American Publishers president Tom Allen, "I hope Rapidshare would realise that it would be easy to get further orders if they continue." He called the amount of theft of copyrighted works through Rapidshare "astonishing."

A spokesperson for Rapidshare said the company plans to appeal the ruling. According to the spokesperson, Rapidshare hopes the German courts will resolve what the company sees as a conflict between copyright and privacy laws that will provide clearer guidelines on how it can operate going forward.

Allen said he also hoped the decision would begin to show that digital piracy is not a victimless crime and that sites like Rapidshare are profiting at the expense of others. "Authors need to make a living," Allen said. "We won't have the creative output we have now if content is available for free days after it is created."

The publishers that filed suit were Elsevier, Cengage Learning, McGraw-Hill Cos., Pearson, John Wiley, and Macmillan's Bedford, Freeman & Worth divisions.