... Maybe a little too "easy"?

“In what was described as a ‘shot across the bow’ of digital pirates, six global publishers, including John Wiley, Cengage and McGraw-Hill, have obtained an injunction against Swiss-based Rapidshare ordering the company to prevent illegal file sharing of the 148 copyright-protected works cited in the lawsuit,” reports Philip Jones in a story for The Bookseller.

The ruling came from a German court that ruled

… that Rapidshare must monitor its site to ensure the copyrighted material was not being uploaded and prevent unauthorised access to the material by its users. The plaintiffs in this case have alleged that Rapidshare encourages, facilitates, and profits from such behaviour. The company will be subject to substantial fines for non-compliance with the ruling. According to reports, the three-judge court warned that violations could cost the company up to $250,000 on top of the $7.2m in legal fees for the plaintiffs.

The head of the Association of American Publishers, Tom Allen, called the ruling “an important step forward. Not only does it affirm that file-sharing copyrighted content without permission is against the law, but it attaches a hefty financial punishment to the host, in this case Rapidshare, for noncompliance. Consider this a shot across the bow for others who attempt to profit from the theft of copyrighted works online.”