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Currently the website employs a variety of means to detect and remove unauthorised content, including filters, taking down any content when requested to by the rightsholder and employing six people to check for and remove offending content.

But the Hamburg court ruled that this is not enough.

It

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said that Rapidshare must proactively check content before publishing it if there have been similar infringements before and log and monitor the internet addresses of known infringers.

The court dismissed Rapidshare‘s claim that to do so would put it out of business.

“A business model that doesn't use common methods of prevention cannot claim the protection of the law,” it said.

Rapidshare has yet to comment.

The lawsuit against Rapidshare was filed by GEMA, a German copyright protection body, though its likely effect, if it does indeed close down the site, will be to move the offending content to the plethora of rival file hosting sites that fall outside the jurisdiction of German law and are protected by “safe harbour” laws in other countries that protect websites against liability for material posted by their users.