RapidShare Also Scores Trail-blazing Victory in US

CHAM, Switzerland, May 20, 2010 /PRNewswire/ -- Yet another company has failed in its attempt to discredit and have the business model of the leading global one-click-filehost, RapidShare AG, declared illegal.

On 18 May 2010, a US District Court threw out an application for a temporary injunction against RapidShare AG. Submitted on 11 April 2010 at the District Court of the Southern District of California by the adult entertainment company, Perfect 10, the application was intended to force RapidShare into preventing Perfect 10 pictures from being distributed via RapidShare's file-hosting service.

Perfect 10 argued that for a monthly fee of 6.99 Euros, RapidShare offers its users any copyright protected work, which in turn represents unfair competition for 'honest providers' such as Perfect 10, as the latter are unable to compete with a service of this nature.

The court rejected the application in its entirety. In its ruling, the court stated that as a file-hosting company, RapidShare cannot be accused of any infringements of copyrights. Perfect 10 also failed to name the location of the copyright protected content on a single occasion.

The attorney representing RapidShare AG, Daniel Raimer from the firm of Raimer, commented that 'we are extremely pleased at this groundbreaking decision. In passing this decision, the Californian Court has accepted the same line of argument, which underpinned the recent landmark decision of the Higher Regional Court in Dusseldorf in the appeal against Capelight Pictures'. At this hearing, the Higher Regional Court in Dusseldorf revoked a temporary injunction against RapidShare, which had banned the file-hosting company from saving any films uploaded by its customers.

Christian Schmid, founder of RapidShare AG, added that 'the view that RapidShare does not promote any infringements of copyright, unlike other file-hosts, appears to be gradually catching on. It is a milestone for us that this is also happening in the US. We are happy that the court in California has not bought into the odd line of argument put forward by Perfect 10 and we look forward to increasingly emphasise the major difference between RapidShare and illegal share-hosts'.

    File reference: 09-CV-2596H (WMC)

    For all press queries, please contact:

    Heiko Geibig
    Publicis Consultants
    Tel.: +44-(0)69-15402379
    [email protected]

SOURCE RapidShare AG