Legal Or Illegal ? Rapidshare and Megaupload

Currently residing Overseas with the US Army 09102 In Europe, will move to GA in 2008.

I need advice regarding posting links to Rapidshare or Megaupload. Can I post links to files that might infringe with Copyright ? The links would not be indexed, for example in a quote an are for personal use only? Under which circumstances can links to Rapidshare or Megaupload be posted on a website? There would be no profit, maybe some advertisement would be on there is that legal?

A site was shut down in the UK:

"Sites such as TV Links contribute to and profit from copyright infringement by identifying, posting, organising, and indexing links to infringing content found on the internet that users can then view on demand by visiting these illegal sites," said a spokesman for Fac

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What laws apply in the US?

So users would have to actually copy the links and post them in the browser were they would be at Rapidshare , were they would start the download.


So finally can I post links to copyright material on my website,which is hosted in the US?


For instance Music, Movies, TV Shows Applications?

There hasn't been a whole lot of case law in this area, and whether or not you can link to infringing material without hosting the material themselves is still pretty much a gray area. Don't take that to mean you can't/won't get sued. Tell me, would you like to have them use you as an example?

Well I read only one post regarding this and they said for now it is ok to post links to copyright material if the download doesn't start from my site. Is this true or not?

What would have to be in the disclaimer so I don't get sued?

What is legal what isn't ?

Katie74 said:

Well I read only one post regarding this and they said for now it is ok to post links to copyright material if the download doesn't start from my site. Is this true or not?

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I, uh, answered this already.

What would have to be in the disclaimer so I don't get sued?

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No disclaimer will ever protect you.

What is legal what isn't ?

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Again, I already explained this, but I shall reiterate. Hosting infringing material is very illegal. Merely linking to infringing material is not illegal. YET!

Actually, some courts have said that linking can be copyright infringement. Links can violate the copyright holder's right to distribute and control the use of his copyrighted material.

The problem is, other courts have ruled it isn't copyright infringement to merely link to a site.

Of course, the circumstances involved in all of the cases were different, but there is no definitive answer as to whether it is legal or not. You definitely risk an infringement suit if you have not received permission from the copyright holder to link to their material. Even if you were to win such a suit, the suit alone is costly and time-consuming.

quincy said:

Even if you were to win such a suit, the suit alone is costly and time-consuming.

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Haha precisely Quincy! Does the OP truly wish to serve as an example?

Katie74 said:

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What would have to be in the disclaimer so I don't get sued?

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If I knew the answer to that, Donald Trump would be calling me for a job!

Perhaps including in the disclaimer that you were indigent might help.

quincy said:

Perhaps including in the disclaimer that you were indigent might help.

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That doesn't stop creditors from suing!

How about replacing "indigent" with "dead"?

Although I suppose that doesn't stop the creditors either, does it?

Ah, well. I guess I must remain in my tiny little paper-strewn office and the Donald will remain wherever it is he remains (probably not in a tiny little paper-strewn office).

Thanks for the comments.... I wonder.. Google is never sued, they are actually the ones listing all those links themselves.

From Cracks to hacks , over Rapidshare to Megaupload and back...

So actually listings the links should not be illegal, as the biggest search engine is doing it. Not only that, they are indexing the links.

Sorry, Katie, but your logic is flawed. Just 'cause they haven't been sued yet doesn't mean it's legal. I mean, it's still technically legal, but not exactly because of the reasons you've stated.

I'm going to reiterate this one last time: there is no legislation on this topic, so it will be completely up to case law, of which very little exists. Somebody needs to get sued and lose before it will actually be illegal (confirming that as of now it's alright), but I'm quite certain that over the next few years we will see an end to this.

There have been a series of copyright infringement suits filed against Google. Field v. Google Inc. and Parke v. Google Inc. and Perfect 10 v. Amazon.com Inc. and Google Inc. and Agence France Press v. Google Inc., among many others.

One thing all of these suits have in common (other than copyright infringement and Google) is that they have been expensive to bring and time-consuming - for both the Plaintiffs in the cases and the Defendant Google.

Arguments by Google in defense against copyright infringement suits have been based on the fact that search engines do not own the content but rather organize and provide access to the copyrighted material. They generate revenue not through the use of copyrighted material but by selling advertising. Google, and other search engines, now tend to avoid liability under the DMCA. If they are notified of infringing material, they must remove it.

In the cases cited above, courts determined that Google did not directly infringe. Google's defense team used implied license, fair use, the doctrine of estoppel and safe harbor provisions as arguments against infringement.

Copyright holders have cited unauthorized linking in their suits against giants like Google and also against smaller websites. They sue for copyright infringement, trademark infringement, dilution and/or false designation. Additionally they sue for misappropriation, unfair competition, and under contract law theories.

Again, courts have not ruled unanimously in these suits - and it is impossible to tell whether one's linking will lead to a suit or not. Win or lose a suit, however, the costs often run into the multi-thousands and take months and even years in court to resolve.

The problem though is that Google IS making money off the illegal content because why else would I use their search engine if I did not know the link to find the illegal content? If they did not list it, then I would use MSN or YAHOO and therefore Google loses traffic. So, they need to just not link to this stuff at all. Period.