RapidShare lays off most of its staff as it struggles to find new business model
RapidShare used to be the world’s most popular one-click hoster, used by millions to store and share files. Now, it has to lay off 75 percent of its staff. Read more »
France: Google may have to censor for piracy after all
France’s Supreme Court has set aside a critical piracy ruling won by Google in 2011, leaving the door open to the search giant being forced to censor some of its autocomplete listings to prevent copyright infringement and piracy. Read more »
MegaUpload and the end of a pirate cottage industry
One of the key accusations against MegaUpload is that the site knowingly paid users who uploaded infringing content. MegaUpload did pioneer affiliate programs for cloud hosters, and others quickly copied the strategy, leading to a pirate cottage industry. But these days are now over. Read more »
MegaUpload case proves we don’t need SOPA or PIPA
photo: Flickr user Mark Strozier
Not only were the authorities able to shut down MegaUpload and arrest its founders without either SOPA or PIPA, but the facts of the case raise even more red flags about what the government would be able to do to similar services under those proposed laws. Read more »
RapidShare nixes plans for movie download store
Paid movie downloads won’t be coming to RapidShare any time soon: The file host has abandoned its plans to launch a download store with Hollywood fare. But fear not: RapidShare competitor MegaUpload is apparently working on a commercial movie download venture of its own. Read more »
RapidShare Starts Selling Games. Are Movies Next?
The controversial file hoster RapidShare has taken a first step towards entering the digital content business: The company launched a download store for video games last week, and it is promising its end users to enable the sale of any kind of file soon. Read more »
Will the MPAA Target RapidShare, Megaupload or Dropbox?
Hollywood has set its sight on file hosters like Hotfile.com, which was sued this week by the MPAA’s member studios. Many of the legal arguments made against Hotfile could also easily be applied to RapidShare, Megaupload and even cloud-based backup and file synching services like Dropbox. Read more »
Vid Biz: Netflix Canada, FLO TV Sale, YouTube Play
Today on the net: Qualcomm wants to sell FLO TV, Canada’s Netflix users will have a hard time with bandwidth caps, 7-Eleven’s branded web show gets two million views in three weeks, YouTube has selected the jury for its Play award and more. Read more »
RapidShare Ready to Launch Download Stores
RapidShare used to reward users for generating traffic with hugely popular free downloads, but the one-click-hoster is now revamping its offerings to move into a different direction: Content owners will be able to sell files, making it essentially possible to launch download stores powered by RapidShare. Read more »
RapidShare Wins in Court
A German appeals court recently dismissed a lower court verdict against Switzerland-based one-click host site RapidShare, noting that the company can’t be held responsible for the actions of its users. The Dusseldorf-based court also found that there are no reasonable ways for RapidShare to control file […] Read more »
RapidShare Targets Copycats to Appease Rights Holders
One-click file hoster RapidShare has begun to send cease and desist orders to websites that index its content, according to a Torrentfreak report. Some of the sites targeted are Rapidshare.net, Rapid.org and Rapidshare4movies.com. See a pattern here? Apparently RapidShare’s legal counsel did as well, which is […] Read more »
RapidShare to Rights Holders: Let’s Sell Some Content
Swiss-based one-click file hoster RapidShare wants to redirect users in search for pirated content to legitimate downloads, according to a report by Torrentfreak, which is based on an internal email supposedly sent by RapidShare CEO Bobby Chang. Torrentfreak is reporting that Chang approached representatives of unnamed […] Read more »
RapidShare Partners With Warner Bros., Plans to Launch Movie Download Site
RapidShare.com, the controversial one-click file hoster, is working on a movie site with plans to eventually include paid downloads of major Hollywood blockbusters. The Switzerland-based company is testing the waters with a beta site dubbed RapidMovies that currently includes a few dozen trailers. Perhaps more remarkable […] Read more »
Vid-Biz: RapidShare, DoubleClick, Qualcomm
RapidShare Fined $34M; German court orders file-hosting service to filter content in ruling on lawsuit by music publishing group. (TorrentFreak) Rich Media Ads with Video “Overwhelmingly” Outperform Other Formats; Google’s DoubleClick conducted study that found purchase intent dramatically increased by video. (MediaPost) Qualcomm Flo to Lower […] Read more »
