FileSonic Disables File Sharing Following MegaUpload Takedown
FileSonic Disables File Sharing Following MegaUpload Takedown
Posted 01/23/2012 at 7:02am
| by Paul Lilly
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The U.S. government's takedown of MegaUpload and subsequent arrests sent a strong and clear message that even without SOPA/PIPA written into law, it still wields an awfully big hammer. Perhaps federal authorities felt they needed a victory following the collapse of SOPA/PIPA, and MegaUpload is their head on a spike. If that's the case, it worked. FileSonic.com, a file sharing site with offices in the U.K. and Hong Kong, has pulled the plug on sharing files.
"All sharing functionality on FileSonic is now disabled. Our service can only be used to upload and retrieve files that you have uploaded personally," a message reads in a red banner across the top of FileSonic's homepage.
Even though FileSonic is headquartered overseas, it's a dotcom website and therefore falls under U.S. jurisdiction and can be legally seized. That's exactly what happened with MegaUpload.com, which is based in Hong Kong, and U.S. officials collaborated with authorities in New Zealand to arrest site founder Kim Dotcom and others associated with the website.
FileSonic's file sharing service gives users free access to 10GB of storage for 30 days with "limited speed" and a 1GB file size limitation. For $9/month, FileSonic's Pro services ups the ante to unlimited storage, time, and speed, and kicks the files size limit up to 5GB.
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mikeart03a
January 23, 2012 at 5:34pm
Makes me glad that I use .ca domains for the majority of my sites and host my servers in Toronto. To be honest, the US is getting to be pretty ornery to do business in lately. I just shut down all my web hosting operations in the US and moved everything back here to good ole Canada as well Australia and Sweden.
whathuhitwasntme
January 23, 2012 at 4:42pm
so we wait to see how this plays out with servers off shore and websites with a top level domain that is NOT hosted in US of A? .me anyone? .RU take your pick the plentiful web casino's figured out how to get around these rules, your average web guru should be able to follow the casino's lead and make it set up shop in a country with web access and no love of our fair country.
I can think of several in South America and Central America rite of the top of my head that would love to stick it to Uncle Sam.
omnipc
January 23, 2012 at 2:58pm
Paul,
big_montana got a point. Megaupload was about jurisdiction over file servers located in US soil. SOPA/PIPA hasn't passed and you're already integrated it into the story as if it was. Please don't confuse the readers.
Of course, the question whether such raid is constitutional remains to be challenged. However, the budget for a non-corporate entity isn't there.
Paul_Lilly
January 23, 2012 at 6:32pm
Youv've misread my post if you interpreted it to suggest I was saying SOPA/PIPA was written into law. I implicitly say otherwise right from the get-go.
big_montana
January 23, 2012 at 12:11pm
Paul - You missed the boat entirely with the megaupload seizure. It had nothing to do with it being a .com, but with the site conducting business in the US. They have over 1,000 servers based here, conducted financial transactions with US citizens, used PayPal to conduct those transactions, and their hosting services were located here as well. Thsi all makes them subject to US copyright law and DCMA. So, in a nutshell, you generally can't gain the benefits of doing business in a jurisdiction without complying with its laws, and being subject to its enforcement efforts.
Paul_Lilly
January 23, 2012 at 1:05pm
You're right, there's more to it that that -- the MegaUpload case is an interesting legal mess. But the point I was making (and should have been clearer about) is that the U.S. feels it has jurisdiction over all .com and .net addresses, and that may be playing a part in FileSonic's decision to disable file sharing. I don't know if FileSonic actually has servers in the U.S. or if they're all overseas.
See here: U.S. Claims Jurisdiction Over All .com and .net Domains
big_montana
January 24, 2012 at 5:44am
Does not matter if Filesonic has servers in the US. All that matters legally is f they do business and accept payment from US residents. If they do, then they are not exempt from US law. Once you conduct business transactions with a countries residents, you fall under that countries legal jurisdiction. It is a cut and dry case, and Filesonics actions look like they are admitting to performing illegal activities as well, so it would not surprise me at all to see them next on the hit list.
alexw1234
January 23, 2012 at 10:57am
Nuclear missle inbound. ETA: 5 mins Target: FBI Reason: It makes me giggle like a schoolgirl thinking of wiping them of the face of the earth.
Holly Golightly
January 23, 2012 at 9:45am
Well, it seems that all these blackouts... And all these protests, were for nothing. SOPA/PIPA already went through without us voting taxpayers knowing. Internet censorship needs to die once and for all.
Ridnarhtim
January 23, 2012 at 9:20am
So do I get my money back? Because that's not what I agreed to when I paid.
Love the fact that the website still says 'UPLOAD. STORE. DOWNLOAD. SHARE. WE DON'T BELIEVE IN LIMITS.'
LatiosXT
January 23, 2012 at 9:01am
And the problem is, a lot of people seem to be out of the loop while MegaUpload was kicked out in the first place: they were running a legitimate pirating racket.
d3v
January 23, 2012 at 2:13pm
They were paying uploaders to upload content. They weren't paying people to upload pirated content just any content. They took down any pirated content reported to them. Most of what they were doing is standard practice in the file upload site business model. So now the whole business model is screwed.
silence
January 23, 2012 at 9:40pm
These sites all came into existence due to warez. Don't be naive and believe otherwise. People are earning a living uploading pirated content to sites like this where they will be downloaded by the thousands.
Rapidshare and megaupload was the start. People turned to these services instead of using the old school FTP method. People eventually caught on and saw the cash cows these sites could be - and it's all because of warez.
The only reason "reported pirated content" was removed was to comply with DMCA rules and keep people off their backs.
silence
January 23, 2012 at 10:27am
So is/was filesonic, and fileserve, megashares, wupload and the dozens of other filesharing services. They are mostly in business to share pirated content.
Captain_Steve
January 23, 2012 at 8:20am
I have a feeling we'll start seeing a whole lot more sites that end in .uk, .du, and .anythingnotusowned after all this.
d3v
January 23, 2012 at 2:20pm
No we won't. In case you didn't notice countries as far afield as Hong Kong and New Zealand were involved in the megaupload takedown. Every country on the planet takes orders from the USA.
jnite
January 23, 2012 at 8:23am
Even more money going overseas instead of into the U.S. Seriously, this country is determined to scare away all forms of business.
MaxPower99w
January 23, 2012 at 10:37am
Drop box should be fine, maybe. I personally have received a warning from DropBox because my Public folder generated too much traffic. They disabled sharing on my account for a several days.
DropBox is an eminent loop hole since you have to connect to an actual person for sharing and there appears to be a legit method of tracking and takedown (acct suspension?).What ever happened to old fashioned "hey, that's copyrighted material" removal requests?
d3v
January 23, 2012 at 2:15pm
Megaupload *was* complying with takedown requests. That's the point that most people miss.
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