RapidShare Puts The Bull’s-Eye On Linking Websites

August 21, 2012 by
Filed under: Announcements & Events, File-Sharing Programs, Networks & Services, Legal P2P News & Issues, Movies, MP3, Digital Audio & Games 

Instead of developing new legislations that may come into conflict with innovation, the U.S. government should concentrate on taking down websites that offer links towards pirated content. At least this is the opinion of RapidShare.

To make sure that government authorities take the aforementioned recommendation seriously, RapidShare’s Chief Legal Officer Daniel Raimer met with technology leaders and law enforcement at the Technology Policy Institute on the 20th this month.

RapidShare, as many may know, is an already established file-hosting service, but there’s a catch. In the company’s opinion, many websites are using links that direct the user towards this type of services, and this is a real problem.

As such, Daniel Raimer made an appearance at the Technology Policy Institute forum in Aspen. Furthermore, he’s decided to join a panel on Copyright and Piracy with the purpose of informing that file-hosting services are not to blame for today’s issues with piracy, but only the means through which people host their data.

“Rather than enacting legislation that could stifle innovation in the cloud, the U.S. government should crack down on this critical part of the online piracy network,” RapidShare wrote.

“These very sophisticated websites, often featuring advertising, facilitate the mass indiscriminate distribution of copyrighted content on the Internet and should be the focus of US intellectual property enforcement efforts.”

Moreover, the company also suggests that the U.S. government should encourage voluntary industry agreements in order to combat piracy in a manner that’s beneficial for everyone. Such agreements already exist in the advertising business and payment providers, and file-hosting services should not be disregarded, the company noted.

“[The U.S. should] continue its work to secure voluntary industry agreements to address repeated online piracy and counterfeiting and include cloud storage and file hosting companies in these efforts.”

This year RapidShare published a “responsible practices” document for file-hosting businesses, believing that this could be the starting point for an industry agreement.

Last but not least, Raimer is quite sure that when file-hosting companies take responsibility and linking portals will be taken down, rights holders could have much less to worry about.

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