SOPA or no SOPA it appears that many file sharing services have been spooked by the recent events. MediaFire went as far as releasing a statement calling themselves a “cloud storage service” rather than a “File sharing service”…rrright.
Now that MegaUpload has been shut down by the feds, other file sharing sites (Fileserve, Hotfile, Rapidshare, etc) are deleting files and blocking USA IP’s.
MegaUpload – Closed.
FileServe – Deleting multiple files. Closed affiliate program.
FileJungle – (Owned by FileServe) Deleting multiple files. Testing out blocking some USA IP addresses.
UploadStation – (Owned by FileServe) Deleting multiple files. Testing out blocking some USA IP addresses.
FileSonic – (Owned by Fileserve) No concrete news yet.
VideoBB – Closed affiliate program.
Uploaded – Banned USA IP addresses.
FilePost – Started suspending accounts with infringing material (doing what Hotfile did)
VideoZer – Closed affiliate program.
4shared – Deleting multiple files. (More via pupfresh)
MediaFire’s Position in the Cloud Storage Market
Recently there has been extensive media coverage of the United States Government’s shut down of MegaUpload.com which has drawn attention to the entire cloud storage market as a whole…
MediaFire offers a free, secure, and unlimited cloud storage service for users to upload and share data … (more here)
By framing MediaFire as a cloud storage service MediaFire might be buying themselves a few more months, but it doesn’t take a genius to realize that many people use MediaFire exactly as they did MegaUpload…to share pirated content.
We’ll see how these stories develop but it’s interesting to note that many of these file sharing services are closing their doors to American users only. By shutting those customers out the FBI can’t really go after the sites… I’m sure they still will.
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