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RapidShare Fighting Piracy By Slowing Download Speeds
An anonymous reader writes "File hosting sites have been under increased pressure since the shutdown of Megaupload — both from law enforcement and from the sudden influx of new users. RapidShare, already dealing with a reputation as a facilitator of piracy, has now instituted a policy they hope will drive pirates away: download speed caps for its free service. According to TorrentFreak, 'RapidShare says that there is a direct link between free users of file-hosting services and copyright infringement. Those who like to pirate prefer not to pay, the company believes, not least because they want to avoid connecting their personal payment details to a copyright-infringing cyberlocker account. Now, there will be those who say that however RapidShare dress it up, the company will be aware that the restrictions will drive users to their premium services to get better speeds. But interestingly RapidShare is now offering ways for users to get faster download speeds without paying a dime — providing those uploading the original files they’re trying to access do some work.'"
I'd still rather pay 10c for a fast and simple criminal service that treats me with respect than pay $20 for a legitimate fiddly DVD that treats me like a criminal... (also this)
I mod down anyone who says "I will be modded down for this", regardless of the rest of their comment
...its slower speeds. This should in no way chase away legitimate users leaving only the pirates who dont care if their copy of photoshop takes half a day to download while they're at work.
"Have you ever thought about just turning off the TV, sitting down with your kids, and hitting them?"
Seems like rapidshare is doing some CYA here. If you want better speeds, all you have to do is supply them with some cantact info-- fake will likely do-- and some information about the files being shared-- again fake will likely do. This way if they get raided, they can say "I didn't know that was a TV episode, they told me it was home videos".
> there is a direct link between free users of file-hosting services and copyright infringement.
There is also a direct link between internet users and copyright infringement. There is also a direct link between prople exchanging information and copyright infringement. And so on.
Copyright is for-profit censorship. As soon as you have two people exchanging information, be it on the net, by pendrives, even exchanging books, as soon as you cut out the middlemen, it will probably be some kind of infringement.
The problem with this, what they call infringement is _normal human behavior_ that shouldnt be infringement in the first place. As soon as people get together, they exchange information. Declaring parts of this information exchange somebody elses "property" and trying to censor it by basically spying on every information exchange between two people, is censorship straight from the darkest surveillance state nightmares. The worst case scanario. It is basically north korea, but not with respect to "political information" but with respect to "proprietary information". Censorship is censorship, whatever paltry excuse you can come up with for it.
At a guess, this is just marketing BS being used to disguise an attempt to get more paid users. Rapidshare have form in this area - they rebranded themselves the "Anti-Waiting Company" at the same time as increasing the amount of time free users have to wait for downloads and increasing their premium prices.
As I commented in a previous story [slashdot.org], people are bringing this on themselves, and also ruining the internet for the innocent bystanders like me.
I guess it is perspective - I feel like people willing to feed the RIAA/MPAA infinite copyright machine are ruining the internet for innocent bystanders like me.
W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.