Rapidshare Trying To Convert Pirates Into Customers

[wraggster]

The file-hosting service Rapidshare is seeking major entertainment industry partners for an online store [to which links containing infringing material will redirect]. The plan is an attempt to bridge the gap between copyright holders and users of the site who distribute infringing material. Similar to many other companies that operate in the file-sharing business, Rapidshare often finds itself caught between two fires. On the one hand it wants to optimize the user experience, but by doing so they have to respect the rights holders to avoid being continuously dragged to court. To ease the minds of some major executives in the entertainment industry, Rapidshare's General Manager Bobby Chang has revealed an ambitious plan through which copyright holders could benefit from the file-hosting service. At the same time, Chang says that his company will target uploaders of copyrighted material — whom he refers to as criminals — more aggressively

http://yro.slashdot.org/story/10/03/28/1517232/Rapidshare-Trying-To-Convert-Pirates-Into-Customers

[VampDude]

Rapidshare have been trying to convert for the past year, with movies.

That's nice, to say his customers are criminals. I only ever download HD T.V. shows with my account, because whoever records/uploads them remove the commercials. It saves me the time of editing all my boxed recordings.

[doctored]

There must be like 5% of total rapidshare content that isn't in breach of copyright?

[VampDude]

More than 5%, many people re-upload freely distributed software. I once downloaded a collection of freeware on Rapidshare, a whole 300mb's worth.

Megaupload and Hotfile are the current file hosts with the illegal activity, because for the free users they offer higher upload/download speeds.