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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.
where are these mythical $20 DVD's?
Here. Pick one.
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.
...you'll find a whole bunch of stuff well under $20. Two of the most popular releases from 2010 - The Twilight Saga: Eclipse (Two-Disc Special Edition) is $7.78 for the two-disc set and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 1 is $4.99. (In fact, it was that price even before December - I bought it as a Christmas present.) New releases are going to be more expensive - you can't blame a for-profit industry from trying to make a bit more money from those people who've gotta have stuff now and are willing to pay a premium instead of waiting six months, can you?
I know people love to whine about how over-priced movies are, and how that justifies your piracy, but seriously, these are two block busters from 2010 for the price of a McDonald's meal. What's it going to take to stop you pirating this stuff?
As I commented in a previous story, people are bringing this on themselves, and also ruining the internet for the innocent bystanders like me.
Bimbo Newton Crosby this is about control, especially to the RIAA. The future is video channels on the web and tours booked for a percentage instead of the frankly assraping and "Hollywood Accounting" that the record companies have been pulling and this scares the crap out of them. My oldest and his college buddies never listen to the radio, its all tube channels and internet streaming which gives unsigned and unknowns the same chance as everyone else to be heard and this scares the living hell out of them. Ultimately the MAFIAA want to turn the net into the home shopping network so they can go back to being the gatekeepers of exclusive content but frankly even film making with Machinima is getting damned good.
Anybody see "Escape from city 17"? Frankly it was more exciting than the last 3 Hollywood boomfests IMHO and that was made on a shoestring budget. Hell one of the more interesting movies I've seen in awhile practically had a zero budget, wish i knew the name. maybe if I describe it somebody will chime in, it was about a party for a friend that was moving off and as the story progressed you found out the reason the guy was moving was because he was actually over 10,000 years old and had to leave before it got too obvious he didn't age.
this is what scares the MAFIAA, that they won't be able to leech off of artists anymore like how they are screwing many 70s artists like Cheap trick by giving them NOTHING for digital sales, basically saying since it didn't exist when they signed in the 70s tough shit, or how Meatloaf went bankrupt fighting the studios who cliamed Bat out Of Hell I, the album with the record for longest stay in the top 200, actually didn't make a dime. Living close to Memphis I've seen kids sign and hand over an album the studios DIDN'T PAY SHIT FOR only to have the album sell 300,000 copies and get handed a BILL by the studios for "promotion expenses". The sooner that whole cabal DIAF the better.
ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.