File sharing site fights for legitimacy on Capitol Hill

“Don’t hate the player, hate the game,” is the message being transferred to Washington by file hosting website Rapidshare. 



The controversial German-based site has come under rather rapid-fire from the MPAA and RIAA, both of whom accuse it of piracy and facilitating copyright infringement.

Yet, Rapidshare is retaliating, armed to the teeth, not with knives, but with something far sharper and more damaging – its own Washington lobbyists operating under the auspices of Dutko.

To be sure, Dutko attorney Daniel Raimer wants legislators to know that Rapidshare is “not very happy” about the masses of people using its service to infringe content copyright, a practice which it does not condone.

Raimer also emphasizes that the site is willing to filter content in the future to prevent unauthorized downloads of copyrighted content.

As such, Rapidshare hopes to be removed from the list of “Notorious Markets” by early 2011 to avoid an uncermonious domain seizure by DHS and ICE. 



Of course, with the MPAA and RIAA spending approximately $1.8 million a quarter on lobbying efforts, one has to wonder if little Rapidshare stands a chance of escaping Hollywood’s well-funded long arm of “justice.”



(Via TorrentFreak)