RapidShare Wins New Procedure Against Capelight Pictures

RapidShare Wins New Procedure Against Capelight Pictures

Higher Regional Court of Dusseldorf Strengthens Position of Leading International File Hoster

CHAM, Switzerland, July 22, 2010/PRNewswire/ -- RapidShare AG has won an additional appeal procedure against
the film distributor Capelight Pictures. RapidShare had appealed against a
preliminary injunction of the Dusseldorf Regional Court from the previous
year. The Higher Regional Court of Dusseldorf has now reversed this
preliminary injunction.

The object of the dispute was the issue of whether RapidShare
had undertaken all reasonable measures to counter the illegal dissemination
of the film Inside a Skinhead, which is distributed by Capelight Pictures in
Germany.

The Court has confirmed this. In April 2010, in another appeal
procedure against Capelight Pictures, RapidShare had already been validated
in its claim that as a file hoster it was already taking more action against
breaches of copyright on its platform than need reasonably be expected of it.

In the procedure that was ruled upon in April 2010 by the
Higher Regional Court of Dusseldorf, it was stressed that a particularity of
the case lay in the fact that the film titles consisted of descriptive terms
taken from the English language, such as Insomnia or The Fall, so that the
use of a word filter was excluded due to the high number of possible wrong
hits. In the procedure that has now been ruled upon, the file name again
contained the full film title, which however, unlike in the procedure
previously ruled upon, did not solely consist of descriptive terms. The Court
acknowledged that in this case as well the use of a word filter could not be
expected, as this would hinder the lawful saving of private copies. The
saving of works that are protected by copyright under their clear work title
is admissible for private copies by German law, so that a word filter would
also lead to the deletion of lawful private copies. Regarding the issue of
whether RapidShare has the possibility and therefore the obligation of
preventing a dissemination of download links through the collection of links,
the Court answered in the negative.

Daniel Raimer, the lawyer who represented RapidShare during
the proceedings, states: "The ruling is a further step in the right
direction. The previously common practice of copyright holders to sue
RapidShare on the off-chance there might be something to be gained from it,
misunderstanding the realities it is operating within and showing contempt
for its business model, will no longer bear fruit. The newest court rulings
in Germany and the USA indicate this very clearly."

Christian Schmid, the founder and CEO of RapidShare, says: "We
are also pleased with the ruling because it is connected to a claim for
compensation of costs. Copyright holders should therefore think very
carefully in future about whether they wouldn't prefer to save themselves
some time and above all the expense of suing RapidShare for something for
which the company cannot be held liable."

Press contact:
Thomas Dreiling
Tel.: +49-(0)69-15402-8521
E-Mail: press@rapidshare.com

Source: RapidShare AG

Press contact: Thomas Dreiling, Tel.: +49-(0)69-15402-8521, E-Mail: press@rapidshare.com

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