Rapidshare releases new policy regarding antipiracy

On Wednesday, at the National Press Club, the online locker service Rapidshare released a new policy statement titled “Responsible Practices for Cloud Storage Services”.    In the wake of the MegaUpload takedown by the US government and the current lawsuit involving Hotfile and the MPAA, Rapidshare is trying to show that they are different, and that they take an active role in detecting and removing materials that infringe on copyright.  In this new document, Rapidshare pledges to go above and beyond what is required by the DMCA  in the US.

Rather than simply abiding by removal requests as they come in, Rapidshare now advocates scanning material as it is uploaded to any cloud storage service.  They are also recommending more employees to scan files and a more automated service for the major content makers to remove infringing files.

Even these steps are seen as inadequate by the RIAA.

Ars Technica has the story here.

And if you wish to see the entire text of the Rapidshare statement, that can be found at TorrentFreak