The German Federal Court has ruled that hosting service RapidShare is liable for links to illegal content on its service. RapidShare could not be held liable for direct copyright infringement, but can be held liable for secondary infringement in some circumstances. According to the Court,  hosting services don't have to monitor content uploaded by users, but could be required to take action when they have been notified of a specific problem with infringement. 

In 2008, Atari brought a case against RapidShare after illegal copies of its video game Alone in the Dark were found on RapidShare's servers. Atari wanted RapidShare to take measures, amongst others filtering, to block further user uploads of the game. The Higher Regional Court of Düsseldorf stated that RapidShare took sufficient measures against copyright infringement. Atari wasn't willing to face defeat though, and brought the case to the Federal Court. 

Last week, the Federal Court ruled that RapidShare has to take "all technically and economically reasonable precautions" without compromising its business model, to ensure that users don't upload Atari's game. Also, RapidShare has to take additional steps to prevent the distribution of links to illegal content on third party websites. However, the Court says it doesn't have enough information to judge if RapidShare already takes enough measures. Therefore, it sends the case back to the Higher Regional Court of Düsseldorf. RapidShare is confident that the Higher Regional Court will rule in their favor, as it has done earlier.

Read more about the liability of hosting services on FutureOfCopyright.com: 

• German court: Rapidshare is liable for copyright infringing links
• File-hosting giant MegaUpload guilty of direct infringement
• Indian ISPs block access to major filesharing sites

Source: TorrentFreak

By: Marjolein van der Heide