CHAM, Switzerland, February 1 /PRNewswire/ --

- The Liability of Infrastructure Suppliers Must be Specified

CHAM, Switzerland, February 1 /PRNewswire/ --

The District Court in Duesseldorf has rejected the negative appeal by
RapidShare against GEMA. RapidShare wants to bring about a decision from the
appellate court in this legal dispute concerning the verification of legal
obligations of web hosters and is appealing. This original judgment has no
effect on the operation of rapidshare.com.

"Our goal is legal security," explained Bobby Chang, CEO of RapidShare.
"The proceedings were the most necessary step to achieve it."

RapidShare had already lost one prior original proceeding initiated by
GEMA, most parts of which were repealed in the second instance. The Regional
Court of Appeals in Cologne reached the opinion that RapidShare does fulfill
its legal obligations, if it removes individual publicly accessible music
files from its services. The court furthermore acknowledged that it is
impossible for RapidShare or it is not reasonable to expect RapidShare to
prevent that musical work are offered as such via its platform.

"According to our opinion, it is counterproductive to comprehensively
condemn the internet and hosting, because there is a way to misuse them,
which is true for any infrastructure", according to Chang. "The objective is
to handle this subject reasonably and discerningly in Germany."

The core of the proceedings is to define the verification duties of
hosting companies, which have been interpreted differently to date. The
requirements span from the use of software filters, the registration of all
users, and the increase of the number of abuse staff up to the verification
of link resources. Which software filters are sufficient for the verification
requirements, how many abuse staff members are reasonable and which of the
link resources, of which there are hundreds, have to be checked, is not
consistently defined.

"It is even more significant that all of these measures will not be
sufficient to stop the misuse of hosting services with a 100 percent
guarantee. As a consequence, they will not solve the overall problem. To
provide an innovative infrastructure and simultaneously prevent all misuse is
a requirement that the internet industry cannot fulfill. The topic has to be
discussed on a different level in Germany," concluded Chang.

Journalists will receive the link to download the original text of the
court's opinion (in German) at press@rapidshare.com.

About RapidShare

RapidShare AG hosts information for companies and private individuals:
The user loads his data in a few steps onto his system via the so-called 1
click hosting and receives a link at which he can again download or delete
the information, if desired. RapidShare AG was established in 2006 and has
its central office in Cham, Switzerland.

Your editorial contact:

    Bobby Chang, COO of RapidShare AG,
    Gewerbestrasse 6, 6330 Cham,
    Switzerland,
    Tel.: +41-41-748-78-88,
    E-Mail: bchang@rapidshare.com or
    press@rapidshare.com.