IPEC Comments
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Office of the U.S. Intellectual Property Enforcement CoordinatorExecutive Office of the PresidentThe White HouseWashington, DC 20500Re: Development of the Joint Strategic Plan on Intellectual Property Enforcement
Introduction
RapidShare AG (RapidShare) submits these comments as part of the Office of
Intellectual Property Enforcement’s request for
public input to assist in the developmentof the Joint Strategic Plan on Intellectual Property. RapidShare is a global market leaderin secure data logistics and file-hosting. Based in Switzerland, the company operatesmore than 1,000 servers offering over 800 Gigabits of server capacity and severalPetabytes of storage capacity. RapidShare was recently awarded the coveted HuberVerlag German Industry Prize in the category of IT and Software.RapidShare believes that the U.S.
government’s
intellectual property enforcement effortscan be improved by concentrating on third-party web sites that facilitate access tocopyrighted material stored remotely by cloud services. Additionally, RapidSharebelieves that
IPEC should continue its efforts to encourage voluntary industry “best practices” by all parties involved in the hosting, storage,
and distribution of copyrightedcontent on the Internet.
Strategy Recommendations
IPEC seeks
“specific recommendations for significantly improving the government’sintellectual property enforcement efforts” and “seeks information on approaches that are
particularly effective as it drafts a new strategic plan.
”
RapidShare welcomes theopportunity to provide input into the Joint Strategic Plan on Intellectual PropertyEnforcement. RapidShare has always embraced its obligation to protect the intellectualproperty and copyright interests of creators. The company has a strong interest inactively promoting legitimate uses and discouraging illegitimate uses of its service. Fullya third of its staff is devoted, seven days a week, to curbing copyright infringement.RapidShare makes two recommendations based on the co
mpany’s years of experience in
addressing online piracy.1) The Joint Strategic Plan should focus enforcement efforts on third party web sites thatfacilitate mass indiscriminate distribution of copyrighted content by making the accesscredentials of encrypted files publicly available.Cloud storage services are becoming an integral feature of modern computing platforms.Consumers are demanding alternatives to local storage on computers, devices or storagemedia that can be easily lost or stolen. In
today’s increasingly mobile society, workers
often prefer to rely on computers and devices available at their destinations rather thancarrying equipment and data with them. Employers may make select documentsavailable to employees via third-party services. Collaborators may share projects and
large files with each other in a location where no single person controls the platform.Publishers may make their works widely available using cloud-based storage as anefficient and cost-effective alternative to direct hosting. Rather than enacting legislationthat could stifle innovation in the cloud, the U.S. government should crack down on thiscritical part of the online piracy network.The only way that content stored with RapidShare can be accessed by a third party iswhen a user makes his or her access credentials available to others by posting thisinformation on websites. These very sophisticated websites, often featuring advertising,facilitate the mass indiscriminate distribution of copyrighted content on the Internet andshould be the focus of US intellectual property enforcement efforts.Cloud computing services have enormous potential to increase worker productivity,promote collaboration, and lower IT costs
—
but only if consumers have confidence thatsecure data logistics companies are legitimate and that their files will be kept private andsecurely stored.2) IPEC should continue its work to secure voluntary industry agreements to addressrepeated online piracy and counterfeiting and include cloud storage and file hostingcompanies in these efforts.As IPEC noted in its May 2012 testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee
“effective enforcement must involve private
-
sector stakeholders.” To that end, IPEC
reported that it had been instrumental in securing voluntary agreements with InternetService Providers, advertisers, credit card companies, payment processors, searchengines, and domain name registrars and registries that outline specific steps to addressinfringement. RapidShare believes these efforts should be extended to include
all
industry stakeholders, including cloud storage services.While cloud storage has been available for years, with a variety of both
well establishedand newer companies providing it, certain high-profile cases have put cloud storage in thespotlight. Some accuse customers of cloud storage services of misusing those services tocarry out copyright infringing activities. Some cloud storage providers also standaccused of encouraging and ex
ploiting those customers’ abuses. For years RapidShare
has been working diligently on multiple fronts to distinguish itself as an important andresponsible company in this growing industry.Because any customer can misuse cloud services to engage in wrongful conduct,RapidShare has taken the position that it has an obligation to protect the intellectualproperty and copyright interests of creators. In April, RapidShare released voluntaryindustry guidelines for Cloud Storage Services. We believe that adoption of theseresponsible practices for cloud services could significantly reduce the availability of infringing materials online.
RapidShare’s
Responsible Practices for Cloud StorageServices
outlines a number of principles aimed at curbing copyright infringement
and
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