RapidShare to U.S. Officials: Focus on Linking Sites

In comments recently submitted to the Office of the jordan femme U.S. Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator (IPEC), RapidShare’s Chief Legal Officer Daniel Raimer recommended that the U.S. government focus its efforts not on “cloud services” like RapidShare, but on the sites that “facilitate access to copyrighted material stored remotely by cloud services” — in other words, linking sites, some of which have already received some attention from various law enforcement agencies.

“Cloud storage services are becoming an integral feature of modern computing platforms,” Raimer notes in his comments, adding that the growing ubiquity in cloud computing services argues for an approach to online copyright enforcement that will not impede development of such services.

“Rather than enacting legislation that could stifle innovation in the cloud, the U.S. government should crack down on this critical part of the online piracy network,” Raimer writes — with linking sites being the “critical part” of the online piracy network he’s referring to.

While it’s easy to be cynical and note that RapidShare’s suggestion has the added, self-interested benefit of drawing rights-holder and law enforcement attention away from services like those that RapidShare offers, Raimer isn’t wrong when he identifies linking sites as a critical aspect of online piracy networks. There’s also a good deal of merit in the Responsible Practices for Cloud Storage Services statement RapidShare issued in April.

No matter how you slice it, RapidShare’s comments to IPEC are an interesting read – all the more so because they come from a company that is well positioned to observe the habits and techniques of pirates who abuse the “cloud” in order to rain on rights-holders’ parades.http://www.jordan5.fr