Everybody out there knows you can use sites like RapidShare very easily share all kinds of content.  It is also no secret that they probably have more than few illegal or copyrighted works on their web site.  Being the interested citizen I am I started looking around their site to see what they do about these “bad” downloads.

From their news page, I found this interesting quote:

The security of personal data is very important to us, especially in these times. That’s the reason why we will not spy out the files that our clients faithfully upload onto RapidShare, not now nor in future.

That sounds a little fishy, but in the name of privacy concerns, I’ll cut them some slack.

RapidShare, of course, is against the distribution of illegal files and as soon as we are informed about illegal distribution, we delete these files and put them on a filter.

Ahh, that is better – they investigate claim of illegal or copyrighted files.  So where do you go to report the abuse?  I had to do some hunting around the page, but finally found it under Support > Abuse Contact.  What do they require?

Please note that we only follow up messages that meet the following requirements: abuse@rapidshare.com.

• Please provide us with your name, address and telephone number.
• Explain which copyrighted material is affected.
• If it a case of files with illegal contents, please describe the contents briefly in two or three points.
• Please provide the exact and complete RapidShare download link of the file
• Give details of the address of the webpage that published the link.
• If there are several RapidShare links, please include all links with complete details in your message. Please do not send any attachments. Simply insert the details in text format into the message.
  (Example: http://rapidshare.com/files/123456/beispiel.jpg).
• Please ensure that you can receive further enquiries from us at the e-mail address you are writing from.
• Please only write to us in English or German.

That is insane!   Explain to me why they need your phone number, address and name?  Sure the rest of it is a little much too, but that kind of sounds silly.  What happens if you don’t give them this full essay of abuse?

Anonymous or incomplete messages will not be dealt with.

Shame on RapidShare for falling down on the job here.  I understand that investigating every claim might be a little hard, but heck – just search for “Rapidshare ‘insert name of media here’” and you will find all the proof you need.