Is Rapidshare a promoter of e-book piracy?

[Daithi]

Of course they are promoting piracy.

The vast majority of files on this site are not the Intellectual Property of the people posting the files. Rapidshare's owners know it and don't care. Rapidshare's users depend on it.

We can argue over legalities, but it's really disingenious to argue that they aren't promoting piracy.

[darylbrayman]

Two points, one I just went to Rapidshare and searched for The Lost Symbol. Only for interest sake, like others I wouldn't read it if it magically appeared on my reader. It came up as removed.

Two

Originally Posted by DawnFalcon

(And I'm told it's actually easy and dosn't come with massive strings like, say, Ebay's VERO program. Plus banned file hashes stay banned.).

I just went to ebay.co.uk and searched ebooks fiction and unless Stephen King, James Patterson and Bernard Cromwell have just put all their books into the public domain then ebay does not filter or control the sale of pirated ebooks. So is Rapidshare any worse than ebay? Just some food for thought

Regards, Daryl

[Phogg]

Originally Posted by Daithi

We can argue over legalities, but it's really disingenious to argue that they aren't promoting piracy.

....To exactly the same degree that the yellow pages is promoting the fencing of stolen goods, and the medical practice of unlicensed physicians.

Which has not been refuted in this thread, nor is there sufficient evidence to so so.

[Format C:]

Originally Posted by fugazied

It's not a promoter of piracy, moreso a facilitator of piracy much in the same way the pirate bay is.
........

Hey, you're forgotting Hitachi and Toshiba: they facilitate piracy providing the disk space.
And what about Intel? Those thieves give all the computational power pirates use to produce their files!!!!!!!!!



But, hey, Dan Brown himself facilitated piracy: he actually wrote the pirated book!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Patricia]

Originally Posted by Harmon

I downloaded a copy of Dracula from the Sony/Borders Google Books section. It is a poorly formatted book. Gobbledygook on about every third page, interpolations of what must be the original photoscan of the volume. Now, there are a few cheapish versions on the S/B store, but not a word about the formatting. Nothing to tell me if they are text or pdf or epub or lrf. Nothing suggesting that the formatting is any better than the free version. In other words, the publishers don't seem to know what it is that they are selling. They think it's the content of the book, but don't seem to grasp that the content of this particular book is free.

Harmon, we have Dracula in the MR uploads section, converted by JSWolf. Try that instead: it will be much better.

[Hellmark]

I wouldn't say that they promote pirate, just lazy. They will remove copyrighted material, you just need to notify them first. Although, I do understand why they do that. I had a site for a while that was similar, that merely hosted game files for the game Frets on Fire, and despite an extremely small user base, I could easily spend hours removing files that weren't allowed when ever I looked at the site. I can't even imagine how difficult it would be even with a site that gets 1% of the traffic rapidshare gets. They would require to have entire teams of people, who do nothing but searching and removing copyrighted content. From a business standpoint, it is better to let others do the work of searching for you. Saves you money.

[Daithi]

Originally Posted by Phogg

....To exactly the same degree that the yellow pages is promoting the fencing of stolen goods, and the medical practice of unlicensed physicians.

Which has not been refuted in this thread, nor is there sufficient evidence to so so.

The yellow pages provides phone numbers, addresses, and advertising for legitimate businesses. This isn't even remotely analogous to Rapidshare's facilitation of pirated books.

Rapidshare is far closer in character to the pawn shop. Rapidshare claims they are not providing stolen goods, and instead it was the evil person using their service that did it, and Rapidshare knew nothing about it <wink><wink>. This is just like the pawn shop that says "Honest your honor, I didn't know that stuff was stolen. It is all the fault of the thief who sold it to me."

Pawn shop owners that knowingly sell stolen goods go to jail. To protect themselves they record your ID and the goods you are selling them into their records. Many pawn shops, such as those in Florida, provide this information to the police on a routine basis, and others will certainly provide it if asked. [Edit: If you don't provide an ID they throw you out of the store.] Pawn shops also serve a legitimate purpose. They provide short term loans and quick cash for people who need the money but can't get credit elsewhere. Any pawn shop owner who had a business where 95% of the stuff he sold was stolen would soon find himself in prison.

[wgrimm]

Originally Posted by TadW

What I don't understand how Rapidshare can get through with this. Small sites go down immediately when they have some kind of infringing material on their site

Well, ebookshare has been up for years- guess if you only LINK to sites or torrents it is okay.

IMHO, the publishers STILL do not understand pricing of e-books. Look at the ridiculaous prices charged for tech e-books, esp. computer related. APress is an example- they want over $40 for a protected pdf e-book. I would NEVER pay thaat price, nor would most people. But, I have bought several Apress pdf's for the "special" price of $10.......

[Phogg]

Originally Posted by Daithi

The yellow pages provides phone numbers, addresses, and advertising for legitimate businesses. This isn't even remotely analogous to Rapidshare's facilitation of pirated books.

Rapidshare is far closer in character to the pawn shop.

Not at all.

Pawnshops actually SEE THE GOODS they accept. For that matter, they see who brings the goods in.

Phone companies solicit the placement of adds, often by phone, mail, or over the internet. If over the internet the entire process is automated.

Only if someone wants a specific illustrated add with photos does a physical person have to talk to another, and in zero cases does the phone company inspect the service or products of the business. Nor should there be any requirement for such an inspection.

The pawnshop analogy therefore flies about as well as a Jersey cow.

[jankovicgood]

Shut down the Internet, the place where pirates share their stuff.

[Shaggy]

Originally Posted by DMcCunney

A judge can make whatever ruling he likes. The question is exactly how RapidShare is expected to do this.

Anybody with a clue will realize that they can't. Judges rarely have a clue about this sort of stuff.

[Shaggy]

Originally Posted by Format C:

Hey, you're forgotting Hitachi and Toshiba: they facilitate piracy providing the disk space.
And what about Intel? Those thieves give all the computational power pirates use to produce their files!!!!!!!!!

Don't laugh. Remember when Sony was sued by the movie industry for manufacturing VCRs?

But, hey, Dan Brown himself facilitated piracy: he actually wrote the pirated book!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

For the good of humanity, please make him stop.

[Daithi]

Originally Posted by Phogg

Not at all.

Pawnshops actually SEE THE GOODS they accept. For that matter, they see who brings the goods in.

Phone companies solicit the placement of adds, often by phone, mail, or over the internet. If over the internet the entire process is automated.

Only if someone wants a specific illustrated add with photos does a physical person have to talk to another, and in zero cases does the phone company inspect the service or products of the business. Nor should there be any requirement for such an inspection.

The pawnshop analogy therefore flies about as well as a Jersey cow.

The point I was making is that Rapidshare and illegal pawn shops are analagous in that they both knowingly sell stolen goods. The fact that one business can SEE the person who originally stole the goods does not in any way invalidate this analogy.

The Yellow Pages provide addresses, phone numbers, and Ads for legitimate businesses. They are nowhere close to being a business like Rapidshare.

[Shaggy]

Originally Posted by Hellmark

I wouldn't say that they promote pirate, just lazy. They will remove copyrighted material, you just need to notify them first.

I wouldn't call it lazy. According to the DMCA for example (I know, they don't fall under US law), that's exactly how it's supposed to work. The suggestion that they should proactively filter stuff is made by people that have no idea what they're talking about.

[Shaggy]

Originally Posted by Daithi

The Yellow Pages provide addresses, phone numbers, and Ads for legitimate businesses.

What makes you assume that they're all legitimate businesses?