Converting a .rar file - Book by David Eddings

[AZed]

Originally Posted by igorsk

What criminals?

It's a reference to the fact that online file-storage systems like RapidShare, MegaUpload, FileFactory, etc. are heavily used by pirate communities of all flavours. He's exaggerating a bit, though -- RapidShare in particular actually has a fairly substantial usage by small companies (particularly in the photography and video editing fields), and an entire featureset for pay-per-megabyte bandwidth used almost entirely by legitimate businesses. I've also seen it (very rarely) used to post compiled unofficial branches from Free Software projects and scientific datasets.

That said, if you get a Rapidshare link from some place that is *not* obviously a legitimate business or public project (i.e. you weren't given a chance to actually *buy* something there and it isn't an Open Source/Free Software/Academic project), odds are quite good that there's a violation of copyright involved somewhere. If the material being downloaded is known to be for sale elsewhere (i.e. most books you would have heard of), the probability approaches 100%.

[igorsk]

AFAIK, copyright violation is not considered a "crime" in most cases.

[AZed]

Originally Posted by igorsk

AFAIK, copyright violation is not considered a "crime" in most cases.

I can't speak for other countries, but my understanding of U.S. law is that despite the near-complete lack of prosecution, the threshold for criminal infringement under Federal law is low enough to make it very common.

See U.S.C. 17.5.506, particularly A.1.C. By my reading, public distribution via Rapidshare instantly attaches in any case where the uploader *should have known* (whether or not he did know) that the work was commercial.

[JeffElkins]

Originally Posted by igorsk

AFAIK, copyright violation is not considered a "crime" in most cases.

Well said Igorsk!

[redbaron101]

Originally Posted by HarryT

"RapidShare" should immediately raise a red flag. It's a site used almost exclusively by criminals.

hey! that's a bit heavy - while I agree its an unfortunate situation that a lot of copyright material does get on places like rapid share there are legit reasons for using it too. Its useful posting stuff like (legal) bioses and other technical files we share amongst many people etc or to share large files that you cant email to each other.

[ProDigit]

I thought canadians are allowed to upload, but not download,while people from the US are not allowed to upload copyright material, but can download it (seeing they are unaware that it is copyrighted; or something...)