File-hosting behemoth Rapidshare may go the way of the OiNK. It's lost a case against GEMA -- essentially Germany's RIAA -- in which a judge declared it is in fact responsible for copyrighted material hosted (usually temporarily) by other users using its servers.

While GEMA has already issued a press release explaining that this means all policing Rapidshare does must be preventative and not after-the-fact, the specifics of how Rapidshare must rid itself of piracy is unclear. Rapidshare claims to host 4.5 petabytes of material at any given moment, which would make preemptive strikes on copyrighted material essentially impossible.

Many expect Rapidshare to shut down completely if it's made specifically responsible for filtering all files before they're posted; keeping the site open would no longer be practical. Still, the kids are already trading ideas as to how Rapidshare, and the huge population of bloggers and friends that use it, can stay afloat. Between things as simple as alternate filenaming and as complicated as hidden-wallpaper RSS scripting (what?), no one can honestly expect filtering a service like Rapidshare to work, which makes this seem much more like a murder attempt than aggravated assault.

Rapidshare is currently taking the case to the Düsseldorf court of appeals.