RapidShare Also Scores Trail-blazing Victory in US
By Rapidshare Ag, PRNEWednesday, May 19, 2010
Application for Temporary Injunction Against Leading File-hosting Company Rejected
CHAM, Switzerland, May 20, 2010 - 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 heiko.geibig@publicis-consultants.de
For all press queries, please contact: Heiko Geibig, Publicis Consultants, Tel.: +44-(0)69-15402379, heiko.geibig at publicis-consultants.de
Tags: Cham, May 20, RapidShare AG, Switzerland