Due to a creative interpretation of German copyright laws, various record label companies are now able retrieve personal information from internet service providers and take legal action. One of the most prominent demonstrations of this recently occurred last week. The popular website Rapidshare has been forced to hand over logs of their uploader's IP addresses. Ranked as the 14th top site from Alexa, Rapidshare is a dedicated one-click file hosting service. Already, a man has been apprehended for uploading Metalica’s new album Death Magnetic to Rapidshare a day before its schedule release date.
However, this does not only apply to music labels. The movie industry and various other right holders also has started making their move on taking advantage of this new interpretation of the law in Germany. This can extend to not only services like Rapidshare but also the bittorent community in Germany. Especially after the verdict of The Pirate Bay trial, bittorent has been a hot topic lately. Numerous bittorent communities have already closed, most of which were voluntarily, due to the fear of being prosecuted.
Ironically, Lars Ulrich of Metallica admitted to downloading one of his own albums from bittorent. A former anti-piracy advocate, Ulrich now admits to the changing times of the internet. Although he says this after he tries piracy for the first time, Ulrich finds it strangely bizarre.
In our current age of internet technology, privacy online is just as important as in real life. Not having full control of where our personal information goes is a serious issue that is bound to grow larger as the internet progresses. Hopefully, the German law will be revised and fixed up to protect online users.
Sources:
http://www.alexa.com/topsites
http://torrentfreak.com/rapidshare-shares-uploader-info-with-rights-holders-090425/
http://torrentfreak.com/metallica-frontman-pirates-his-own-album-090305/
I'm a fine art street photographer in Greece and I take photos of random strangers, mostly girls and women, in the street without their permission or knowledge (every time I have asked for permission my "models" refused or demanded payment, which I won't give because the photos are mine since I created them) and I post the photos on Flickr and Facebook as well as my professional website. I also sell photo prints in fine art galleries and very soon I'll also have ready my first photo book to be sold internationally. Just like many other street photographers, taking pictures of strangers has become my career, but some people believe their "privacy" is compromised even though y "models" were in a public place. I think we need to draw a red line on where privacy ends. Individuals shouldn't have privacy in the street, because otherwise we photographers can't do our job. The problem is, if you give people privacy on the inernet they will want it in the street as well, so I'm very suspicious of people promoting privacy, albeit I understand the problems you mention.
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