AfterDawn: Tech news

Rapidshare throttling free user download speeds to stop piracy

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 24 Feb 2012 1:00 User comments (12)

Rapidshare throttling free user download speeds to stop piracy Rapidshare has confirmed it is throttling the download speed "free users" of its service receive in an effort to reduce piracy.
Free users have complained over the past week that their speeds max out at 30 Kbps, far lower than usual, and a useless speed if downloading any file of significant size. Most assumed Rapidshare was cashing in on the demise of Megaupload, Filesonic and Fileserve by pushing free users into purchasing premium accounts.

Rapidshare has once again taken the throne as king of cyberlockers, despite a cash rewards program for uploaders that made hosters like Megaupload, Hotfile and Filesonic popular. Having a free user option is great for many who do not want to "pay to pirate," or are scared of having their personal details linked to an account that can be used to abuse copyright.

In response to a question by TorrentFreak, Rapidshare had this to say about the slow speeds:

On January 19th Megaupload was shut down by the FBI. Shortly thereafter, several other file hosters curbed their services or entirely stopped their operations.



RapidShare has been faced with a severe increase in free user traffic and unfortunately also in the amount of abuse of our service ever since, suggesting that quite a few copyright infringers have chosen RapidShare as their new hoster of choice for their illegal activities.

We have thus decided to take a painful yet effective step: to reduce the download speed for free users. We are confident that this will make RapidShare very unpopular amongst pirates and thus drive the abusive traffic away.


On the other hand though, there are thousands (if not more) major uploaders who use Rapidshare to offer their own files on sites/blogs and need free users to download their files. The cyberlocker will make an exception for those who use the site for legal activities:

We knew that through the action taken we would even affect some RapidPro customers, especially those who offer their own files via websites or blogs and heavily depend on a possibility for free users to download their files. Therefore, we have decided to offer those customers a kind of deregulation that allows free users to download their files with the fastest possible speed again.

What this means is that uploaders of content will have to provide RapidShare with details on the nature of their account including what type of files they're sharing, the name of the sites and blogs where the download links are getting posted, and the uploader's email address and telephone number.


If you sign up, Rapidshare has the right to examine every file you upload.

Previous Next  

12 user comments

124.2.2012 13:15

even before they "throttled" the speeds the site still sucked. screw throttling just take down your lame neutered site.

224.2.2012 13:25

Aaah, the almighty cloud. I warned you folks about this. Now P2P is just going to have to get more creative. Obviously, there are simply things others aren't cleared to see. In a world hell bent on taking things out of context, misquoting or flat out plagiarizing you like a colonoscopy going horribly awry, the last thing we need is these people acting as 'police'.

We've all had that 'busy' neighbor, who'd if she spent as much time on keeping her family as she did running her nose up everyone else's ass her kids wouldn't be in jail, kind of neighbor? Well, that's what Rapidshare has 'volunteered' to here folks.

They'll kick you. Then they'll report you. Just to save their own asses. Mark my words... and it'll probably happen before I can get this posted & read a few times.

324.2.2012 13:33

Download during the nighttime. Less chance of throttling. Better yet, use the built-in scheduler that comes with JDownloader to do this for you.

424.2.2012 14:44

Jdownloader has been slow as hell on Rapidshare for the past couple weeks. Some times it doesn't work at all. Why are people keep using these websites to download from? Torrenting is far more efficient.

This message has been edited since its posting. Latest edit was made on 24 Feb 2012 @ 2:44

524.2.2012 15:03

They want your money,thats it thats all!!

624.2.2012 16:37

At least Rapidshare doesn't bother me with those stupid captchas.....

725.2.2012 02:37

Welcome to: Slowshare !

825.2.2012 11:38

Hello Kies

925.2.2012 16:17
dave6
Unverified new user

problem become after this edited by ddp russian become boss of rapidshare. edited by ddp cummunists

This message has been edited since its posting. Latest edit was made on 25 Feb 2012 @ 5:06

1026.2.2012 20:18
JohnnyDust
Unverified new user

Originally posted by dave6:
problem become after this edited by ddp russian become boss of rapidshare. edited by ddp cummunists
That's oximoronic. Piracy is damn near a national pastime in Russia, and communists believe in sharing everything. If only the Russians was in charge, the whole world would be run like rapidshare in the old days. The problem here is capitalism.

119.3.2012 07:59

do you realise that throttling speeds on the net is against the law in the united states a company cannot throttle users not even a cable company if they do they face some serious court time and it would follow under Network neutrality law

and to add to my last note there not even based in the united states there based in the UK somewheres

This message has been edited since its posting. Latest edit was made on 09 Mar 2012 @ 8:05

129.3.2012 12:04
TheQuestion
Unverified new user

Originally posted by stuntz0rZ:
Jdownloader has been slow as hell on Rapidshare for the past couple weeks. Some times it doesn't work at all. Why are people keep using these websites to download from? Torrenting is far more efficient.
My problem is that there are stuff on torrents that are not even seeded or even exist in the first place. I download a bunch of obcursed stuff, and torrents are crap for old files that are not popular. I might have to go the Usenet route soon.

Comments have been disabled for this article.

News archive