MegaUpload has gone. FileSonic too. Who’s next?
Late last week, MegaUpload was taken down by the U.S. Justice Department, on account of copyright infringement to the tune of $500 million in lost revenue from pirated films, music and other digital media. And it appears that such action has sparked other file-sharing websites to act pre-emptively in an attempt to avoid a similar fate.
In the wake of MegaUpload’s legal problems, FileSonic has introduced the following message to their homepage, alongside blocks to the service: “All sharing functionality on FileSonic is now disabled. Our service can only be used to upload and retrieve files that you have uploaded personally.”
Uploaded.to has duly followed suit, albeit in a slightly different manner. In a move not dissimilar to the potential implications of SOPA, Uploaded.to is currently blocking access to any IP that originates from the U.S. As such, American users who attempt to visit the website are provided with the following message: “Not available. Our service is currently unavailable in your country. Sorry about that.”
The above actions undertaken by FileSonic and Uploaded.to also appear to have sent shockwaves throughout the file-sharing realm, which has caused several other big names to hop on the bandwagon. Fileserve appears to have mimicked the actions of FileSonic (that is: banning all third party downloads) and a number of other websites have tweaked their services, too.
- FileSonic introduces a block on file-sharing
File-sharing affiliate reward programs across the web, which reward users for uploading files for others to download, have also been heavily hit. Almost all have now been removed. The Facebook pages of certain file-sharing websites have also disappeared, and, according to Reddit, user accounts have been deleted as well.
MegaUpload, at one point, was the 13th most frequently visited website in the world, and whilst the aforementioned competitors were far smaller in size, they still heavily contributed to copyright infringement across the net. It’s interesting, then, that RapidShare, another notable portal used for the sharing of copyright-protected content has been green-lighted by American courts on more than one occasion, on account that the site not only removes infringing content when made aware of it, but also sports many non-infringing uses.
However, as a predominantly file-sharing service, it’s questionable what non-infringing uses, if any, RapidShare has when compared to MegaUpload or similar. Arguably all file-sharing websites operate a similar business model, so what makes MegaUpload any worse than FileSonic, RapidShare or, indeed, even the likes of DropBox, isn’t clear.
And with the shutting down or severe crippling of the above file-sharing services, it’s questionable whether the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) need actually be passed in order to adequately combat copyright infringement. At present, both SOPA and the Protect IP Act (PIPA) have been shelved by the American congress for further consideration, following significant protest across the internet last Wednesday – punctuated in particular by the ‘blackout’ of two high-traffic websites, Reddit and Wikipedia.
Both SOPA and PIPA have been viewed by many as draconian measures, vesting far too much power in the hands of large corporations who would be able to obtain a court order to block access for American users to any infringing website. Granted, this would allow officials to effectively police the internet outside US jurisdiction, but with most large file-sharing sites utilising a .com address and operating via servers hosted in America, it’s arguable that the bulk of copyright infringement occurs under US jurisdiction anyway.
Perhaps the real victims, then, as those users who use these file-sharing services for legitimate purposes; to backup their files safely online. Fortunately, there are alternatives available: DropBox provides 2GB of free storage straight off the bat, with tiered pricing plans thereafter, and Windows SkyDrive offers a staggering 25GB of storage to all users with a Windows Live ID. That is until these services are targeted for copyright infringement, too.
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