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Digital MegaUpload Timeline Top Stories
MegaUpload rival FileSonic offline
By CMU Editorial | Published on Tuesday 4 September 2012
A MegaUpload competitor, FileSonic, has seemingly gone offline, with Torrentfreak reporting that the digital-locker and file-transfer platform ceased to be active last Wednesday.
Once a popular platform for storing and sharing digital files, FileSonic was one of the file-transfer set ups that restricted its services in January after the US authorities shut down MegaUpload and had four of its executives based in New Zealand arrested on charges of mass copyright infringement.
As previously noted, FileSonic went further than most in implementing anti-piracy measures after the Mega shutdown, making it so that users could only access content they themselves had uploaded (rather than also the movies and music other users were storing on the FileSonic servers), and actually deleting accounts that made large amounts of unlicensed content available to others.
Needless to say, FileSonic saw its user-based drop significantly once the new measures were introduced, possibly supporting the entertainment industry’s argument that file-transfer platforms of this kind attract users not because they offer free or cheap cloud-based storage for digital files, but because they can be used to access large amounts of film, TV and music content for free from other users’ digital lockers.
Though that doesn’t mean FileSonic has closed simply because of waning user numbers. According to the BBC, FileSonic had its own legal woes, having been sued by a porn company called Flava Works, which accused the file-transfer company of enabling its users to infringe the adult entertainment firm’s content. Similar legal action by the same porn outfit caused another file-transfer site called Oron to go offline last month.
Of course the wider file-transfer market watches developments in the MegaUpload case with interest. Some Mega rivals reckon their existing anti-piracy measures protect them from any liability for infringement (even if those measures aren’t wholly successful), while others still just hope they can stay sufficiently under the radar to avoid any direct legal action, civil or criminal. Though, as the MegaUpload case progresses in a typically slow fashion, it will be interesting to see if any other similar sites decide to call it a day, whether motivated by actual legal action, or just the mere risk of it.
