# RapidShare will soon be shut down



## axxo (Feb 3, 2008)

No safe harbor for RapidShare in copyright infringement case

File-sharing service RapidShare has been dealt a blow by a German court and faces severe penalties if it fails to take appropriate measures against the uploading of copyrighted content by its users. The Düsseldorf Regional Court ruled against RapidShare last week in a case brought on by the German version of the RIAA, GEMA. GEMA hailed the decision as a huge victory, and concluded that RapidShare could face shutdown if it's unable to comply.

RapidShare has long argued that it can't be held responsible for what its users upload to the site. But the court disagreed, saying that the site must take responsibility for copyright infringement, even when the material in question was uploaded by its members. "This decision marks a milestone in the fight against illegal usage of our repertoire," said GEMA CEO Dr. Harald Heker in a statement. "It sends out a clear signal that any services, which derive financial benefit from unlawful uses of our works, will have to take extensive measures to protect the rights owners and cannot simply evade liability by referring to the action of individual users. With this landmark decision, the way has been paved for instituting proceedings against other similar services."

Had this involved a US court, the outcome would have been different. In the US, web site operators can (and do) argue that the Safe Harbor provision in the DMCA protects them from liability as long as they remove infringing content after being presented with a takedown notice. In Germany (and many other countries), there is no equivalent to protect sites like RapidShare, meaning that RapidShare almost has little but to comply with the ruling. According to GEMA, the court said that RapidShare must "take such measures as involve the risk of its business model becoming much less attractive or even having to be discontinued entirely."

This is exactly how companies like Viacom would like things to play out here in the US. Big Content would love to hold sites like YouTube responsible for checking, in advance, every single item uploaded to the site, and have them held liable for any infringing content that ends up online. Instead, the Safe Harbor provision requires them filing takedown notices every time they come across something that might be infringing. Big Content is also pushing hard for filtering solutions that it believes could provide the solution to all their problems. Unfortunately, filters don't understand fair use, and their use could result in legitimate content being kept offline.

As for RapidShare, it's unclear what will happen next. Christian Solmecke, an attorney for the site, told TorrentFreak that the outcome of the case is unusual, because it would require RapidShare to perform the nearly impossible task of checking every single item in its hosted materials for copyrights. "I believe that Rapidshare will appeal against the decision of the Landgericht (District Court) of Düsseldorf," Solmecke said. "If they do so, we will have to wait and see what the Oberlandesgericht (Higher District Court) of Düsseldorf (as the Court of Appeal) says."

Source: *arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/2008...apidshare-in-copyright-infringement-case.html


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## nileshgr (Feb 3, 2008)

thank god i am not a user of RapidShare


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## Zeeshan Quireshi (Feb 3, 2008)

I guess then Rapidshare would have to Shift Base to the US !


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## The_Devil_Himself (Feb 3, 2008)

^^or better sweden,lol.


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## NucleusKore (Feb 3, 2008)

If this case sticks it will hit all such similar services. I do use it for a lot of legitimate purposes as you have seen on this forum
*farm3.static.flickr.com/2180/2122604477_1f3f245df7_o.png


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## nvidia (Feb 3, 2008)

I better download whole of Rapidshare.... and quick


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## SunnyChahal (Feb 3, 2008)

Rapidshare sux big time.torrents rokkk!!!!
The premium acc. thing sux.Why dont they give it away for free like torrents???


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## Gigacore (Feb 3, 2008)

^ u r capped  

anyway bad news


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## nvidia (Feb 3, 2008)

^^Its because its faster and more reliable i guess...


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## Hitboxx (Feb 3, 2008)

Good news and good riddance!


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## Rockstar11 (Feb 3, 2008)

bad news 
Rapidshare rocks man


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## ico (Feb 3, 2008)

Sunny1211993 said:


> Rapidshare sux big time.torrents rokkk!!!!
> The premium acc. thing sux.Why dont they give it away for free like torrents???


You are saying this because I suppose you use torrents for Piracy and expect the same from Rapidshare.....
Edit: And moreover, when we upload a file to Rapidshare, it costs them. So, to earn money they have Premium account etc.

When we have to send an attachment in an email, but the the file is bigger than the permissible limit, at that time Rapidshare comes to rescue.


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## iMav (Feb 3, 2008)

imho skydrive is better even mediafire is a great alternative; rapidshare has absolutely irritating restrictions which generate no sympathy towards its possible demise ... go die and rot rapidshare and take megashare too with u


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## karnivore (Feb 3, 2008)

^^ +1, mediafire really rocks.


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## nvidia (Feb 3, 2008)

Let megaupload die..


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## axxo (Feb 3, 2008)

iMav said:


> imho skydrive is better even mediafire is a great alternative; rapidshare has absolutely irritating restrictions which generate no sympathy towards its possible demise ... go die and rot rapidshare and take megashare too with u



+1
let them be with timer,capach, no download manager support, etc 
but atleast they should remove the hourly restriction


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## quan chi (Feb 3, 2008)

*rapidshare was really very good.*


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## The_Devil_Himself (Feb 3, 2008)

^^and the biggest let down is no support for resuming:it really irritates me.


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## mavihs (Feb 3, 2008)

it was oky. hope it doesn't go. there are lots of file 2 be downloaded from there.


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## phreak0ut (Feb 3, 2008)

I hope it's taken down for atleast 5 months. There are so many people who think there are no alternatives other than RS. Same goes to Megaupload. One more irrirtating thing about Megaupload is the 'slot full' message. RS, get a HARD WHACK ON YOUR BU**!!


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## CINTEL ENTRINO (Feb 3, 2008)

karnivore said:


> ^^ +1, mediafire really rocks.



nope.. it doesnt support resume feature on download managers..... 



Sunny1211993 said:


> Rapidshare sux big time.torrents rokkk!!!!
> The premium acc. thing sux.Why dont they give it away for free like torrents???



but in torrents we always have to be cautious of the ratios.... upload speed,seeds,peers.... etc etc blah blah blah  

at least in rs u can just d/l without a cluttered mind


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## karnivore (Feb 3, 2008)

^^ No i am talking of useless slot restrictions. Mediafire does not have that. Also. probably, when they made their first appearance, they allowed resume facility. Now they don't.

Actually i am yet to come accross a file-hosting site, which provides decent dl speed + no slot + resume.


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## CINTEL ENTRINO (Feb 3, 2008)

^^
megashare is really good ... u should check it.. there r tons of others with no slot restrictions.... but they dont have speeds like that of RS....


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## redhat (Feb 3, 2008)

The best alternative RS can have is shift bases like piratebay...

RS makes a hell lot of money wid its premium accs....

but truly, RS rocked


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## blackpearl (Feb 3, 2008)

Bad news!!
Rapidshare is really good for downloading old stuff that nobody seeds.
Many games/movies etc are available on rapidshare that are not avaiable in torrents.


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## Rockstar11 (Feb 3, 2008)

CINTEL ENTRINO said:


> but in torrents we always have to be cautious of the ratios.... upload speed,seeds,peers.... etc etc blah blah blah
> 
> at least in rs u can just d/l without a cluttered mind





blackpearl said:


> Bad news!!
> Rapidshare is really good for downloading old stuff that nobody seeds.
> Many games/movies etc are available on rapidshare that are not avaiable in torrents.



+1


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## chesss (Feb 3, 2008)

iMav said:


> imho skydrive is better even mediafire is a great alternative; rapidshare has absolutely irritating restrictions which generate no sympathy towards its possible demise ... go die and rot rapidshare and take megashare too with u


 eggactly! 

though I am pretty sure the ruling will have to be overruled, coz the judge is prolly a big noob.


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## viswanadh (Feb 3, 2008)

Good news. People will now don't waste their time and money on this stupid site full of restrictions. Mediafire and Divshare are great. Yes, it costs them money when we upload a file. But they can earn money by putting adverts on the site. Even popups are ok if the speed is good. Rapidshare's hourly restriction is the worst of all. I access net from LAN behind proxy. I will have to wait at least a night to download from RS. Even megaupload is a crap


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## techtronic (Feb 4, 2008)

I like Megashares a lot as it supports upto 2 split downloads and also download resuming is supported.  But anyway I also like RS for my CBT Nuggets


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## MetalheadGautham (Feb 4, 2008)

better start hoarding stuff from rapidshare


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## george101 (Feb 4, 2008)

Very good news......... 
+1 for mediafire


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## goobimama (Feb 4, 2008)

The internet users should file a PIL against Rapidshare, Megaupload and Megashare for sucking at what they do. I think there are many other file uploading services which are much better than these jokers.

(why am I so negative today?)


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## vaibhavtek (Feb 4, 2008)

Hitboxx said:


> Good news and good riddance!


bad news  
Rapidshare rocks man


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## MetalheadGautham (Feb 4, 2008)

rapidshare as a service sucks big time, along with megaupload and megashare. But I use them because I am forced to, like using windows. All good stuff is commonly available in rapidshare only.


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## slugger (Feb 4, 2008)

dont u all use adrive.com ? it allows download manager use but no resume support

xdrive.com supports both manager and resume, but apparently stuff gets deleted fast from xdrive
i get good speeds with xdrive

haven't used adrive a lot, but i found it a little slow


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## MetalheadGautham (Feb 4, 2008)

zshare and zupload are awssome.


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## Voldy (Feb 4, 2008)

Darn 
i have to quickly finished off my list of downloads which r of  RS links


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## nvidia (Feb 4, 2008)

When exactly will RS be shutdown?


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## din (Feb 4, 2008)

skydrive has no limits ? Like unlimited upload / downloads ?If it is easy also, then its good.

The good thing about Rapidshare is it is very simple to use and it support unlimited downloads (atleast a huge number of downloads) and their premium rate is pretty cheap.

They are allowing hell lotta files uploading and downloading and they should make it free ? ? Sorry but I do not understand that logic. They are spending a huge resource for the file sharing and how can they afford it keeping it open and free for all ? ?

Will we give free lunch to all people going through the road - every day ? Very similar to that


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## The Conqueror (Feb 4, 2008)

Use isohunt.com for super seeded torrents!
Its really gr8 !

I hate RS ! it has tooo many restrictions


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## Lucky_star (Feb 4, 2008)

I have so many DL running from RS. Will have to finish them fast. For me, RapidShare and Megaupload have full speeds after 3.00 AM. Megaupload is better than RS in providing download resumes.

And who says, download slots are always filled for Megaupload? Its just a matter of a Firefox addon


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## amol48 (Feb 4, 2008)

What about the premium users who have gone for lifetime FREE downloading... If it goes down then I guess, the lifetime was perhaps much lesser than everyone expected


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## x3060 (Feb 4, 2008)

media fire is much better...


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## axxo (Feb 4, 2008)

din said:


> skydrive has no limits ? Like unlimited upload / downloads ?If it is easy also, then its good.
> 
> The good thing about Rapidshare is it is very simple to use and it support unlimited downloads (atleast a huge number of downloads) and their premium rate is pretty cheap.
> 
> ...



too much excuse...if this is the reason how come mediafire survive?
and what 7 euro per month is cheap? not in indian currency atleast...thats more than one pay for their broadband connection..
rapidshare are just business minded...from my thoughts.


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## slugger (Feb 4, 2008)

axxo said:


> rapidshare are just business minded...from my thoughts.



all this time were you under the impression dat rapidshare is an NGO, which is offering you file hosting service for the upliftment of the poor and downtrodden in Somalia?


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## axxo (Feb 4, 2008)

slugger said:


> all this time were you under the impression dat rapidshare is an NGO, which is offering you file hosting service for the upliftment of the poor and downtrodden in Somalia?



oh..not aware of the fact that they are for rich ppl.....& INDIA is not Somalia


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## slugger (Feb 4, 2008)

see no body is holding a gun to ur head and asking you to use rapidshar's services

u r choosing to use their hosting services out of your *own free will*

if you r so pissed off with them why use their hosting services

they have their terms and conditions of usage- if you like it then accept it or else dont use it, simple

y crib about it


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## axxo (Feb 4, 2008)

slugger said:


> see no body is holding a gun to ur head and asking you to use rapidshar's services
> 
> u r choosing to use their hosting services out of your *own free will*
> 
> ...



as many of us told..we are just left with no option when our desired files are in rapidshare and we're just forced to use the service


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## VexByte (Feb 5, 2008)

_It's really a good news for me_ if RS is shutdown since *I had always hated it for it's unwanted restrictions.*

Shtdown RS as soon as possible !

*Loves mediafire/4shared.*


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## RCuber (Feb 5, 2008)

eh? what happening here? .. first off Rapidshare was designed as a online storage facility, free upto 100MB for 30 days with limited features where as with Permium account you can have more features. *The restrictions are set so that people will not abuse the system*. Now copyright infringement .. its done by user and not rapidshare. rapidshare deleted any uploads if they come to know about copyright infringed material. Its same as telling bit torrents are for piracy. bit torrent is a techonology developed to make filesharing easy , where as if users abuse it should the technology be held responsible for that?


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## ssdivisiongermany1933 (Feb 5, 2008)

Dont care whether it shut down or not ... it suckz any time 

used very less , never for more than 5 Mb file size


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## RCuber (Feb 5, 2008)

ax3 said:


> bt i do ......... many files which rnt on torrents r uploaded on rs ......  IMO, torrents r quite slow compared 2 rs .... torrents r faster only when u spend months of downloading & uploading ...... its just wait , wait & wait .........


Both are different protocols. it cannot be compared. Bit torrent protocol makes the optimal use of the bandwidth available. In bit torrent protocol the speed depends on number of seeders and leaches and their speed. where as in RS or other HTTP filesharing sites it depends on the hosts' BW.


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## Maverick340 (Feb 5, 2008)

So many alternatives have already been pointed out. I doubt it will make MUCH of a difference. However a lot of 'good stuff' is uploaded there and the 'good people' chose RS for it stable and reliable servers. It will be a loss certainly ...



slugger said:


> all this time were you under the impression dat rapidshare is an NGO, which is offering you file hosting service for the upliftment of the poor and downtrodden in Somalia?


LOL


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## utsav (Feb 5, 2008)

Now internet wil b faster


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## i_am_crack (Feb 6, 2008)

Fine guys.. u people hate it... 

Belive me I have a acct in RS... My down speed is not a bit less than 206 average from BSNL connection
I also Have Megaupload Premium acct..Same goes with the speed...

I love using both...Any service offer free has restriction.. we have to go through it as it costs them.. like employing people.. working on files and servers and bandwidth .. Man everything costs..

if you ever had files in RS Acct or MU folders.. you would n't have spoken...

Apart from restriction you still get to have the speed of max from RS... what else do you need for free..a copy of the file delivered to your home..

eBro


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## slugger (Feb 6, 2008)

having a rapidshare or megaupload account to download warez is like tipping the waiter and leaving the [FONT=&quot]Restaurant without paying the bill
[/FONT]


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## utsav (Feb 6, 2008)

lol


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## vaibhavtek (Feb 12, 2008)

^^ I think RUMOUR...!!!


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## juggler (Feb 12, 2008)

Rapidshare shutdpwn will be just the beginnig
megaupload , mediafire will be next


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## The Conqueror (Feb 12, 2008)

I think its a false rumour


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## eggman (Feb 13, 2008)

quan chi said:


> *rapidshare was really very good.*



Rapidshare is still *is*, not *was*............it rocks.....dunno how much money i saved because of  it..........*gigasmilies.googlepages.com/12a.gif


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## The Conqueror (Feb 15, 2008)

When will it be shut down ?
This clearly proves that it is a false rumour


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## nvidia (Feb 15, 2008)

^^they are not going to shut down.. So what if rapidshare shuts down?? Another 1000 sites like RS will come up.


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## axxo (Feb 15, 2008)

Im sad its not really happening..
RS is so popular coz of the fact that there were not too many alternative file hosting service available at the time which is not the case now..
So closing of RS really helps more file transfer to be made possible thru better & promising services in the forms of mediafire, divshare, 4shared, enips & so on.
"SHUTDOWN RAPIDSUX"


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## bigdaddy486 (Feb 15, 2008)

It's a good news...........
Since many warez-sites use rapidshare and who upload 1000s of terrabites will  be sad.............


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## Kiran.dks (Feb 15, 2008)

There are hell lot of other file sharing sites which are better then Rapid Share. Who cares whether it's shut down or not...


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## utsav (Feb 16, 2008)

bigdaddy486 said:


> It's a good news...........
> Since many warez-sites use rapidshare and who upload 1000s of terrabites will  be sad.............



total storage of rapidshare is 4.5 petabytes only


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## redhat (Feb 16, 2008)

> total storage of rapidshare is 4.5 petabytes only


+1


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## sachin_kothari (Feb 16, 2008)

left rapidshare for torrents, so does not bothers me.
and yes, i think its a rumour.


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## bigdaddy486 (Feb 16, 2008)

i perrabites=?

i have found in a warez-site that it is uploading 800TB of data every week.............

sry, petabites=?


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## nvidia (Feb 16, 2008)

^^Petabyte = 1024 Terabytes.
Terabyte = 1024 Gigabytes.


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## MetalheadGautham (May 23, 2008)

*bump...

any updates on this one ?*

PS: eagerly awaiting the grand closing


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## CadCrazy (May 23, 2008)

^^ wtf wrong with you


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## MetalheadGautham (May 23, 2008)

CadCrazy said:


> ^^ wtf wrong with you


the news was a few months old, and stated that (at the time of writing) RS will be shut down in a few months. Thats about now.

So I bumped the thread to see if any updates on the event were available.

Does that make me wrong ?


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## CadCrazy (May 23, 2008)

No.See below


MetalheadGautham said:


> *PS: eagerly awaiting the grand closing*


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## sourav123 (May 23, 2008)

MetalheadGautham said:


> *bump...
> 
> any updates on this one ?*
> 
> PS: eagerly awaiting the grand closing



I don't think rapidshare is closing. They will file many lawsuits and finally continue.

By the way, why are you so unhappy with rapidshare.


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## desiibond (May 23, 2008)

afaik, it's for rapidshare.de, based in Germany.

rapidshare.com servers are in Denmark (i think) and German courts can't do anything about that.


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