German Court Says RapidShare Not Liable for Users' Actions

Dusseldorf, Germany - An appeals court in Germany has ruled that file-hosting service RapidShare cannot be expected to filter the uploading of copyrighted content by users without restricting "fair use" laws, NewTeeVee reported.Several previous lower court rulings had found the opposite, and ordered the company to proactively block certain content uploads.

In February, a German court ordered the site to proactively block the upload of copyrighted textbooks, while in June another German court ordered the site to proactively block uploads of some 5,000 songs. The German appeals court found that "most people utilize RapidShare for legal use cases," and noted the company does not publish an index or provide a search function on its service, relying instead on users to choose whether or not to publicize the URL where they have uploaded content.

German law also allows copying of media for back-up -- as well as sharing between close acquaintances -- meaning a filter placed on RapidShare uploads would prevent this local "fair use" right.