German collections agency GEMA (the German RIAA) says it's won temporary injunctions against the operator of data exchange services www.rapidshare.de and www.rapidshare.com. "The latter is said to have used copyright protected works of GEMA members in an unlawful fashion," says Heise Online.
Rapidshare offers online diskspace where users can upload their files to. When done, other people can download their files. Rapidshare is one of the leading online fileshare websites. According to GEMA, a lot of copyright protected works are uploaded on Rapidshare.
"The services make virtual storage space available into which users can upload content that is thereby made publicly available to other users. GEMA spokesman Hans-Herwig Geyer told Heise GEMA is now demanding details, "on how many copyright protected works of GEMA members are currently stored on the said sites".
RapidShare says it had no knowledge of content uploaded and wasn't able to control it, says the story, going on:
"Through its injunctions the District Court in Cologne had now however made it clear to the company that the fact that it was the users and not the operator of the services that uploaded the content onto the sites did not, from a legal point of view, lessen the operator’s liability for copyright infringements that occurred within the context of the services".
