Los Angeles - A German court has ruled that free file-hosting service RapidShare must work proactively to remove copyrighted material uploaded to its servers, Ars Technica reported.

German rightsholder organization GEMA filed a copyright infringement suit against RapidShare, which can be used by anyone to host large files such as TV episodes and music albums.

Traffic to sites like RapidShare and MegaUpload has skyrocketed in the past year, according to data from monitoring firm Ipoque.

For its part, RapidShare told the court it uses hashes to screen against the reposting of previously removed copyrighted material, and said it hired six full-time staff to monitor the site.

However, the court deemed these measures insufficient, despite the obvious difficulty in examining every file uploaded to the service.

"A business model that doesn't use common methods of prevention cannot claim the protection of the law," the ruling reads, according to a translation of the German by P2P Blog.

Ars noted that, unlike in the U.S., Germany's laws do not provide a "safe harbor" for Internet service providers that safeguards them from liability for actions committed by users of their services, and further stated that it may be cheaper for the company to close its doors in Germany rather than attempt to comply with the court's order.

Related Links:
http://snipurl.com/41ww1 (Ars Technica)

http://www.p2p-blog.com/item-859.html

http://www.rapidshare.com