Filesonic Kills File-Sharing Service After MegaUpload Arrests
• enigmax
• January 23, 2012
http://torrentfreak.com/filesonic-kills-file-sharing-after-megaupload-arrests-120122/
Filesonic, one of the Internet’s leading cyberlocker services, has taken some
drastic measures following the Megaupload shutdown and arrests last week. In
addition to discontinuing its affiliates rewards program and not yet paying
accrued money to members, the site has disabled all sharing functionality,
leaving users only with access to their own files.
To users of systems like BitTorrent, file-sharing means just that – the sharing
of files with others. But this weekend users of Filesonic, one of the
Internet’s leading cyberlocker services, sharing files is currently a thing of
the past.
According to a shock announcement by the site, all file-sharing functionality
has now been disabled, leaving current users only with access to files that
they have personally uploaded. Many hundreds of thousands (probably millions)
of links all around the web have now been rendered useless, at least
temporarily.
But the bad news for the site’s users doesn’t end there. In the last few hours,
before file-sharing was disabled, Filesonic also ended its rewards program,
meaning that uploaders to the site no longer earn money when people download
their files. A moot point perhaps, since no-one will be downloading files
anyway.
However, there is the matter of what will happen to the reward money that was
sitting in uploader’s accounts before the rewards program was discontinued.
Will it be paid out, or will it simply disappear? Many users fear the latter.
This combination of news all adds up to a pretty big deal. Filesonic isn’t just
some also-ran in the world of cyberlockers. The site is among the top 10
file-sharing sites on the Internet, with a quarter billion page views a month.
While there has been no official explanation from the site as to why the above
actions were taken, all eyes are turned towards events of the last week – the
closure of Megaupload and the arrest of its founder and management team.
Like Megaupload, Filesonic appears to based in Hong Kong and it’s clear that
the authorities there already worked with the US government to shut down Kim
Dotcom’s operations and seize his assets there. Filesonic is also believed to
have some US-based servers.
In December, Filesonic announced it had partnered with Vobile, a provider of
content identification services. All uploads to the service were said to be
being checked for copyright infringement before users were able to share them
publicly, although it is unclear if this system was ever implemented by the
site.
The events of the last week have turned the cyberlocker world upside down and
there is quite literally panic among users and site operators. Stay tuned for
our detailed report tomorrow – the Megaupload takedown appears to be a
game-changer.
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Just because i'm near the punchbowl doesn't mean I'm also drinking from it.
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