Rapidshare Textbooks
With the demise of Textbook Torrents students have been looking for other ways to obtain free textbooks. Rapidshare textbooks may be filling that void.
What is Rapidshare?
Rapidshare is a file-hosting site. A really big one. What makes Rapidshare popular is the ability to share those files. Here’s how Wikipedia describes the sharing capability.
On uploading the user is supplied with a unique download URL which enables anyone, with whom the uploader shares it, to download the file. No user is allowed to search the server for content; all files have to be downloaded by following a given URL.
As you might expect, Rapidshare search engines have sprung up to collect and publish these unique URLs. To my knowledge there isn’t a search engine specifically for textbooks. That means you’ll be hunting and pecking for textbooks along with music, movies, games and porn.
Rapidshare Textbook Search Engines
Here’s a small list of Rapidshare search engines that have some degree of textbook content.
Fileshunt
Rapid Library
LoadingVault
Is Rapidshare Legal?
Depends on how you use it. If you’re using it to distribute copyrighted material (e.g. - textbooks) … no. And like Textbook Torrents, Rapidshare has been the center of a lot of legal activity. Rapidshare walks a fine line as evidenced in a October 26, 2008 quasi-blog post.
If, for example, it had been regulated by law to control all copies before the first photo copier was invented, it is very likely that these machines would have never hit the market. That’s why we are doing everything to enable this new technology - which is still very young, but already inspires millions of people every day - to be part of our future and make life more comfortable.
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.
The thing is, going after Rapidshare seems a bit like using ice cubes to put out a raging fire. A flock of similar sites have sprung up like weeds using the same technology. The folks at FreeFileHosts have a great and very detailed list of all of the file-hosting sites.
Like Torrents (which are still out there mind you, there’s just not a hub for textbook torrents which was a bit like putting a neon bullseye on your back), Rapidshare will survive and the debate over digital rights will rage on.
I see both sides of the issue on this one. The cost of textbooks is … exorbitant and publishers have exploited this captive audience for great profit. So I have little sympathy (at this point) for publishers who cry foul as a small portion of sales are siphoned off. The pendulum has yet to swing back to the point where I feel the production of textbooks is in jeopardy or that publishers are truly being hurt.
