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.
No File-Sharing at Filesonic
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 be 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.
http://torrentfreak.com/filesonic-kills-file-sharing-after-megaupload-arrests-120122/
