Don't You Think Sites Like Rapidshare Are Just Hiding Their Intentions?

[The Simpleton 2]

When you visit sites like the pirate bay, mininova, etc, you immediately get to see what they're all about. But when you visit rapidshare.com, or megaupload.com or any such similar site, all you get to see is an innocent file-hosting website which makes money by selling premium accounts. But we know there's more - these sites are used to download terabytes of illegal content daily. I'm not going to ask which one you uses this sites or not, because that's an entirely different topic. What I'm talking about here is how strict are these file-hosting sites about their policies?

 

Each one of these sites clearly state in their terms of use that no illegal content should be uploaded. But of course no one cares about those terms. And rapidshare knows that they're the leaders in illegal file distribution - they even know where to find all those illegal links - but they remain silent about it until someone reports the links. Why do they do this? Just so that they can make more money? We all know that these sites can never sell many accounts if they had only legal content uploaded on their servers! Their home pages clearly display their real intentions - they want more people to download these files so that they can sell more accounts!

 

For example, rapidshare.com's home page looks very innocent when we go there - it just has an upload box and some options at the top. But if you click the "Premium Zone" and see the benefits of a premium account, you get to read this:

Now choose your new Premium Account

No waiting time before downloading

Maximum download speeds

Up- and download up to 2GB sized files

They seem too enthusiastic about downloading rather than uploading, don't they? So what do you think about this? Are these sites really concerned about the amount of illegal content on their servers or are they simply too happy?!

[rvalkass 5]

They state illegal content is not allowed to comply with the law. By saying they only allow legal content it is very difficult to prosecute them for allowing illegal content (because they don't). It also allows them to remove illegal files and disable accounts of those people who upload and download illegal stuff. However, you're right, it's just a front. They're fully aware that a lot of people use their sites for illegal content, but they won't do anything to stop it unless pushed because it makes them so much money.

[akira550 0]

well the only thing i must say is "People or End Users Really Love Illegal Materials" isn't am right?well for the author.. didn't you download or use some illegal contents/files? aha I am just curious. Well people do such thing for the sake of money yes you are right they aren't aware of those illegal contents and they knew it their site have millions or even billions of hack programs or illegal softwares even viruses lol (I don't trust their virus scanner)

[FouGilang 0]

Now choose your new Premium Account

 

* No waiting time before downloading

* Maximum download speeds

* Up- and download up to 2GB sized files

never concerned about whatever they put below the download button, but now i see that one

 

they must be already know about the illegal contents in their hosting service, but as we must be already know too, it's the money that matter. illegal contents are simply just a lure so that everyone will buy their premium accounts (and yes, they simply will be REALLY happy for that). they know that people like to download those "illegal things", and the favourite huge things such as photoshop, windows, sony, etc etc etc are HUGE. that's where they put the "free user limitation" and "premium account advantages" in the operation

[mahesh2k 0]

As far as i know most of the illegal stuff is hosted on premium accounts. And as they're paying rapidshare is not taking that content down. In some extreme cases you can find such account getting deleted. Rapidshare is just file hosst, so in one way or the other they'll make money and there is nothing wrong with that as long as they give good services. I have seen many forums and blogs offering rapidshare 1 month or two months account for free. With some work for them ofcourse. Instead of rapidshare i have fund windows skydrive,4shared,ifileit, mihd sites much better performer than rapidshare. Rapidshare is not offering more than what these services are already offering. So why host files at rapidshare ? Instead mediashare,zidou could be profitable as they give some revenue share as well.

[The Simpleton 2]

People who buy those accounts are bound to stay loyal to rapidshare and are not likely to switch any sooner. And if you do a quick survey of warez sites you'll find that 90% of the content that people are looking for is hosted only on rapidshare - so if they switch to another file-hosting site they won't get what they're looking for But I do agree that people who use file-hosting sites for legal purposes better stay away from rapidshare - it's not worth it!

[TheDisturbedOne 1]

These sites don't really care about the files on their server (though they will comply with DMCA Orders or Cease and Desists). They are out there like most other websites to make money. They do this by allowing people to download files. They don't care if it is illegal or not, they just care about making money.

[greenpeace 0]

It is not always possible for a file hosting and sharing site such as Rapidshare to ananlyze each and every traffic through their servers for copyright violations, computer viruses, child pornography, terrorism related material etc. Among all these, I am particularly concerned about the possibility of transmission of dangerous information in a hidden manner through these servers.A few years back in India, some persons with terrorism related activities used email accounts to transmit messages. As any email send over the network can be monitored by intelligence agencies, they simply created an email and the messages they want to transmit was kept in the drafts folder. Then the username and passwords were given to concerned persons. As this process involves no email sending, it was hard for our agencies to track.I am sure, agencies like FBI would have sufficient technology to detect and monitor such illegal activities on the internet. It would be a help if we could detect and report any such "less secure" areas to the concerned authorities.

[room2593 0]

I find it funny that the RIAA can't shut them down yet. I'm sure that someday the government will control the internet like China does and then Rapidshare will be history. Still, they can't do it now.In the past (like, Shakespeare's day) plagiarism was just a fact of life. Even Shakespeare stole at least half of his play's ideas from somewhere else. For example: Troilus and Cresaida was originally a story by Chaucer. Stealing ideas was acceptable as long as you put your own flair onto the project.Now days, we have even less concern over copyrights. We SAY that we're worried about it, but if the government doesn't do anything to stop the kind of copyright infringement that goes on on rapidshare, do they really care? I'd wager a bet that they don't. As long as it doesn't hurt the government's revenue streams, they really don't give a dangblasted hodown one way or the other.

[webishqiptar 0]

well I agree, to this. But I think it can be difficult to find illegal links. There are so much content inside, that no one can identify links. Than uploaders can hide the identity of a link.

[TheDisturbedOne 1]

well I agree, to this. But I think it can be difficult to find illegal links. There are so much content inside, that no one can identify links. Than uploaders can hide the identity of a link.

It isn't that hard. Sites like megaupload you can just google "site:megaupload.com" and see how many illegal files you see.

[Parubilla 0]

All they care about is making money, and they will keep doing the same things until they have to close, their time will come suddenly, but in the mean time we will have to live with them. Off course they know the files they?re hosting they just don?t care, until someone says hey that?s illegal, that?s when they ban the account I think and erase the file. Anyway they are not the only ones making money the pirate business makes a lot of money so they are not going to leave it yet.

[Strikee 1]

Even if they would really want to stop people from uploading ilegal content they could not succed. WHY ? Because there are too many files uploaded constantly , probabily thousands of small files and fewer Larger ones and that would make it imposible to check everything that goes in.Look at youtube , do you think only legal , non-porn or videos without copyright are beeing uploaded ? There's nothing to do about it , just live with it.

Edited December 15, 2009 by Strikee (see edit history)