VirginMedia's Rapidshare blockage cock-up, not copyright

A ripple of panic ran round the internet yesterday as customers of VirginMedia suddenly discovered they were unable to access Rapidshare or Megaupload. Surely, ran the logic, the ISP is blocking these services because some users don't pay proper attention to licensing when they use them.

Calm down, says Virgin, it's just a bungle at our end:

"We are aware of an issue whereby certain file upload sites were unavailable for Virgin Media customers from late evening Thursday 13th May. Virgin Media did not block these sites and we are investigating the root cause. In the meantime we have implemented a workaround, and customers should be able to now access these sites again. We apologise for any inconvenience."

ISP Review offers a handy guide to getting round such 'problems' should they happen again.

Rapidshare cleared by German court

Having failed to do anything about peer-to-peer filesharing, the music industry's attempts to close down online filesites has had a huge setback after a German appeal court has rejected calls from the copyright farmers for Rapidshare to monitor its users:

Covering the case, NewTeeVee says, “The court also brought up an interesting point: German copyright allows users to make copies of movies and music files for their own use, as well as to share them with a limited number of close acquaintances. Automated filters would make it impossible for users to save a legal backup copy of a movie on RapidShare's servers.”

The RIAA does have a fall-back plan, though, which is to employ Mr I. Hulk to smash all computers in an angry rage.

GEMA slaps Rapidshare

Germany's version of the RIAA has succeeded in getting a court to fine Rapidshare for alleged offences against copyright. [Google translated version of the page]

The detail seems to be based on 5,000 tracks which - apparently - someone had been using Rapidshare to, erm, share rapidly; the onus, says the court, is on the file-sharing service to make sure that it isn't hosting unlicensed music. There's a €24million fine, as well.

Bad news for Rapidshare, good news for GEMA. Although, perhaps, not as good as they seem to think:

Dr. Harald Heker, Chief Executive Officer of GEMA: "The decision of the regional court in Hamburg is a milestone in the fight against the illegal use of musical works on the Internet. GEMA will continue to protect its members from online piracy. We are confident in this way to be able to achieve the reduction of illegal use of the GEMA repertoire on the Internet to a negligible level. "

Really? You think that closing down one of the dozens and dozens of file-sharing services is going to be that significant?

Maybe they're thinking that they can spend some of those €24million on carrying on the fight. Just as soon as the leprechaun delivers them.