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A Hamburg court has ordered file uploading service Rapidshare to remove pirated copies of digital books that its users have uploaded, and have ordered the website to put in measures to prevent future uploads of pirated eBooks.
Rapidshare currently services 42 million users per day, allowing users to upload and download shared files. It has quickly become a very popular way to download pirated content, including eBooks, as it removes the need to use BitTorrent clients that may be speed limited by network operators.
A quick search on third party Rapidshare search engines quickly reveals a long list of suspected pirated content, everything from the latest songs to movies, games and digital books. Some similar operators do have active scanning of uploaded content and block those suspected of being copyrighted.
While much of the focus has been on targeting Torrent websites, websites like Rapidshare, unlike Torrent websites, do actually host the pirated content on their servers and make it available for others to download. This latest court decision may prompt Hollywood and the music industry to take similar action against Rapidshare in the near future.
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Rapidshare currently services 42 million users per day, allowing users to upload and download shared files. It has quickly become a very popular way to download pirated content, including eBooks, as it removes the need to use BitTorrent clients that may be speed limited by network operators.
A quick search on third party Rapidshare search engines quickly reveals a long list of suspected pirated content, everything from the latest songs to movies, games and digital books. Some similar operators do have active scanning of uploaded content and block those suspected of being copyrighted.
While much of the focus has been on targeting Torrent websites, websites like Rapidshare, unlike Torrent websites, do actually host the pirated content on their servers and make it available for others to download. This latest court decision may prompt Hollywood and the music industry to take similar action against Rapidshare in the near future.
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