From the
Chronicle of Higher Education: A German court, chosen for its friendliness to publishers and copyright law in the past, was the scene of a decision against RapidShare, considered one of the primary sources of pirated texts worldwide.
They have been ordered to make more of an effort to screen for pirated material and keep it off their site, or face fines of 250,000 euros or up to 2 years jail time, per instance, of discovering a pirated book on their site.
Quote:
Officials for RapidShare, which is based in Switzerland, could not be reached on Tuesday. In the past, the company has argued that it quickly takes down any copyrighted material that users post to the service once officials become aware of it, and that it follows all legal requirements regarding copyright.
The ruling said the company must go further: "It is not only necessary to promptly block access to the specific file, but rather to also take precautions going beyond this in order to prevent to the largest possible extent the occurrence of further similar infringements."
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The publishers involved were: Bedford, Freeman & Worth; Cengage Learning; Elsevier; the McGraw-Hill Companies; Pearson; and John Wiley & Sons.