Just a quick update on filesharing sites' status

[Cathal]

MegaUpload - Closed.

FileServe - Closing, does not sell premium.

FileJungle - Deleting files. Locked in the U.S..

UploadStation - Locked in the U.S..

FileSonic - the news is arbitrary (under FBI investigation).

VideoBB - Closed! Will disappear soon.

Uploaded - Banned in the U.S. and the FBI went after the owners who are gone.

FilePost - Deleting all material (will leave executables, pdfs, txts)

Videoz - Closed and locked in the countries affiliated with the USA.

4shared - Deleting files with copyright and waits in line at the FBI.

MediaFire - Called to testify in the next 90 days and it will open doors. Pro FBI

Org Torrent - Could vanish with everything within 30 days “he is under criminal investigation”

Network Share mIRC - Awaiting the decision of the case to continue or terminate Torrente everything.

Koshiki - Operating 100% Japan will not join the SOPA / PIPA

Shienko Box - 100% working China / Korea will not join the SOPA / PIPA

ShareX BR - group UOL / BOL / iG say they will join the SOPA / PIPA

 

on a related note UE is getting shafted with ACTA

[Mashi]

Yep I really see magnets/non-centralized p2p/dht coming back to the forefront again.

[greatwulf]

Uploadstation and Wupload are actually part of Fileserve. 1 is down and Wupload is not based in America but will prob follow soon (or swing the banhammer)...

 

And this is prob gonna continue for a while 'till it dies down and new stuff pops up.

[Guest Donkey]

Well i guess economy in America will take a full dump now, if all buisinesses retire to other countries. way to go. So i guess we will see a full unemployments there now ??

 

Cathal apart from the one in china, are all the other in your list located in America ?? Are there some in Europe too ??

[Sand_Dragon]

Yay, Mediafire's not gonna die! I like Mediafire.

[Cathal]

@Donkey

apart from Koshiki, Shienko Box, ShareX BR I'm pretty sure the rest operate from/have servers in USA, as for Europe I'm not sure, but as long as EU doesnt get shafted with ACTA the ones in Europe should be safe

 

[Guest Donkey]

in that case anyone care to buy a deserted Island ?? We could setup a new host there. No more laws..

[beck11]

Oron is down too. Still able to download stuff(for now) but essentially Oron is closed. People said Oron and depositfile would be safe since they are Russian, I wonder where that theory stands now. Idk how many are actually just running scared and how many have impending FBI probes.

 

Personally I dont download movies or music, just porn and TV shows, both have torrent outlets for me to turn too easily. Hope things sort out before Breaking Bad and Game of Thrones begin their new seasons. I wonder if Asia could be the new filesharing hotbed now with so many players out of the way. If that turns out to be the case then I guess it sucks for most people but works well for me personally:D

 

I wonder what new form of warfare the US(politicians) are gonna wage on the world next. I still think once this storm is weathered, things could get back to normal in some way. I made the point in another forum that this scenario is similar to the Pirate bay situations: After the initial brewhaha, things have pretty much gone back to normal. Well actually I dont think it even affected the bittorrent community much at all. Difference here is that people are making hand over fist money and profiteering from piracy, combined with a centralize source for keeping the files means there is a much more easier and focused effort to bring them down.

 

I wonder what new filehost Snoop dog is gonna make a song about next, lol.

 

[hell77d]

In terms of America I speculate that since the American government is drowning in debt (14 trillion dollars) it's just grasping at straws (or "trying anything") by trying to get some of the pirates to buy legit so they gain a few extra bucks in tax. As well as appease all the corporations they're soon to let down.. when the economy crashes.

[EvenstarGW]

In terms of America I speculate that since the American government is drowning in debt (14 trillion dollars) it's just grasping at straws (or "trying anything") by trying to get some of the pirates to buy legit so they gain a few extra bucks in tax. As well as appease all the corporations they're soon to let down.. when the economy crashes.

 

The silly thing is, it won't work. Estimated losses due to piracy are way off, each pirated copy is just counted as a missed sale. I think usually the people who pirate stuff:

 

A - Don't have the intention of buying at all

B - Or if they do they likely buy it after trying out a pirate copy

 

Eliminating either case has no impact on profits. Those who would buy legit are likely to do so anyway, unless the game was so crappy they lost interest.

[Mashi]

Most of the people I work with would never have become cad designers if they hadn't pirated autocad back in highschool ~15-20 years ago. It's sad but it's also true. It also holds true, and atleast 6 different programmers two of which who work for MS Canada(the other four work for IBM and RIM), wouldn't be working in the fields they do if they hadn't pirated Win 3.1/3.11 or DOS 3.2/5/6.22 either, along with C/C++, and the first versions of visual basic.

 

The entire thing is a damned mess.

[Sand_Dragon]

True that. Expensive software can be a tremendous barrier to entry, and in fact sometimes it's the only barrier to entry.

 

Gonna go on a caveman tangent here, but why does something that has no actual physical presence cost more than maybe 50% of the world's population makes in a month? Even accounting for the work-hours put into the development of the software, there's really no reason a program should cost so much.

 

But then I'm not really much on economics anyway.

[greatwulf]

Btw, fileserve is back but they deleted everything else before that. And afaik alot of peoples got banned.

 

I guess they rly pushed that...time is money!

[hell77d]

The silly thing is' date=' it won't work. Estimated losses due to piracy are way off, each pirated copy is just counted as a missed sale. I think usually the people who pirate stuff:

 

A - Don't have the intention of buying at all

B - Or if they do they likely buy it after trying out a pirate copy

 

Eliminating either case has no impact on profits. Those who would buy legit are likely to do so anyway, unless the game was so crappy they lost interest.

[/quote']

 

Not that I disagree, but these excuses just wont work. The way they see it you either buy it, or you shouldn't have it. Plus there is at least a small percentage of pirates that:

 

C - have the intent to buy, but never do because hey they got the full thing for free already.

 

As long as C is possible (forever or as long as there's piracy), they will pursue anti-piracy.

[cyb3r]

Hell77d usually that problem get's solved by better service look at steam the thing is these days no one brings out a demo anymore and then they wonder why their stuff got isodemo'ed(note i don't condone it just explaining) cause stuff is so damn expensive these days and people want value for what they buy i got alot of shopkeepers among my friends and hell those peeps are saying exactly the same so...

 

The issue is that the industry doesn't want to adapt at all they react like fossils that belong in a bloody museum the demand is there but the services aren't around so what do people do? they get it some other way that might be less standardized service wise but get's them what they want

 

this prof explains it in depth but i agree with many of his views on the subject :

[Guest Donkey]

yes me too. I really hate the fact when ever i buy a new game, will it actually work.. Al my games are legit. But none of them work like they where intenden too. Crashes damaged goods.. Allot of them will never get fixed. because the company no longer excist. Yet they did steal my money first.

 

Well if they continue with there anti-piracy law. One day we will get an anti-company law too. Witch will forbit comapnies like bethesda to release somethig who was never meant to be released in this state or suffer major crime panalty. Huge fine.. for relasing damaged goods.

 

They are just doing this because it easier for them to get away with these laws.

[GSBmodders]

i gotta agree with a few of the comments

 

there will always be pirates, no matter what is added in to protect movie's, music, game's and ebooks from piracy someone will find a way around that and distribute it.

 

Do I feel bad for any of the effected companies? NO, to be fucking completely honest I am sick of paying 60 bucks on up for the bug infested nightmares that publishers are flooding the market with. Until there are stricter laws and policies set in place to protect consumers from what I see as fraud, piracy will only continue to rise.

[Sand_Dragon]

Yes. But the proposed bills would increase the power of IP holders by a tremendous amount. Essentially there'll be no need for a lengthy investigation like the one that took down Megaupload. An IP holder who feels his IP has been violated can shut that shit down easily and force the suspect to take it to trial - he has to defend himself against the IP holder's accusations, essentially.

 

The FBI takedown is legal, if not exactly kosher. But the new bills are downright unconstitutional, at least from what I know of the American constitution.

[Ark of Truth]

I want to know what gives America the right to try and create all these new rules and think the world is going to fall in line with it all. YES piracy is a problem and it should be stopped otherwise no more new games etc. BUT surely America knows that these sites can't search every last file uploaded to them.

 

Unless i'm missing something here?

[prideslayer]

BUT surely America knows that these sites can't search every last file uploaded to them.

 

Unless i'm missing something here?

 

Even if the sites are mostly free, if they're responsive to copyright violation complaints and make attempts to ban users who upload copyrighted material that they don't own the copyright to, they will be fine. You don't see any mention of Rapidshare being shut down, or even being investigated.

 

Pay sites are in almost no danger entirely. Nobody is going to upload gigs of pirated stuff to share with the world if they have to hand over all their personal information first.