Rapidshare doesn't want you to download files...

Submitted by drink on Thu, 2008-06-19 14:12

I'm trying to download a file from rapidshare and they're making me solve a CAPTCHA. That's okay, but check out the CAPTCHA they gave me:

Sample CAPTCHA image: This is a sample CAPTCHA image from Rapidshare. This is apparently how they entice users to sign up. Can you see which characters are combined with a cat, and what letters they are?Sample CAPTCHA image: This is a sample CAPTCHA image from Rapidshare. This is apparently how they entice users to sign up. Can you see which characters are combined with a cat, and what letters they are?

The instructions? Please enter the following code when downloading. Only enter symbols attached to a cat. This is for security reasons. Premium users can jump this step. After several tries (including a several-minute wait for a retry after several failures) I ended up getting an error saying "The download cannot be provided. Please check, if your browser supports Javascript." Shock, amazement, it's not turned off. This is a bunch of nonsense. Premium users are paying for Rapidshare expecting that people will be able to download files for free. This is, apparently, not the case. I tried making the download in IE (via ies4linux) but it actually crashed IE5, 6, and 7!