German Judge Grants Six Publishers an Injunction Against Rapidshare

Recently six publishers from around the world were granted an injunction against the filesharing site Rapidshare AG by a German judge. The lawsuit was filed by these publishers: Bedford, Freeman and Worth Publishing Group; Cengage Learning Inc.; Elsevier Inc; John Wiley & Sons, Inc.; The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.; and Pearson Education, Inc.

The injunction went into effect on February 17, 2010, compelling Rapidshare to monitor and prevent the sharing of 148 books named in the lawsuit. Earlier this year, a Publishers Weekly article examined the extent of digital book piracy on Rapidshare.

Here’s more from the publishers’ press release: “The court ruled that Rapidshare must monitor its site to ensure the copyrighted material is not being uploaded and prevent unauthorized access to the material by its users. The company will be subject to substantial fines for non-compliance. Rapidshare collects monthly fees from many of its users and encourages the unauthorized uploading of content with a variety of reward programs.”

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