One of the less talked about, but still highly popular methods of illegal filesharing may be about to be closed off.
Although designed to allow users to legitimately send large files across the internet, German website RapidShare is often used to illegally share music. Because links to large files being shared via the service can be publicly displayed, audio files distributed this way are easily searchable via your favourite search engine, meaning the content can be accessed without having to dip into those pesky P2P networks.
But now Hamburg District Court has ruled that the site does not use sufficient measures to protect copyright owners' interest, and must now not only remove all infringing files on its servers but also proactively check all content before it goes online, at least in the case of users who are known copyright infringers.
The court rejected RapidShare's claims that providing better filtering and employing more staff to make the necessary changes would be to expensive, saying: "A business model that doesn't use common methods of prevention cannot claim the protection of the law".
So, does this mean an end to this method of filesharing? Well, no. RapidShare is one of many sites of it's type and, like when P2P networks get closed down, those who use it will quickly switch to a competing service if and when the German service obeys the court ruling and starts to crack down on illegal file sharing.