Put your hands up if you have ever heard of MegaUpload. Now step to the side. If you haven’t you free to go while the rest remain. Its no news now that our very important file sharing service MegaUpload was taken down last week by the FBI. The news threw a lot of panic across the Internet’s file sharing community. We now watch to see what sites like RapidShare, 4Shared and many other popular file sharing service will do.
FileSonic a popular file sharing site in the ranking of RapidShare recently disabled its file sharing feature to only allow file owners download their file. This move is to potentially reduce its exposure to legal law suits. The content hosted by FileSonic is no longer generally accessible to download. Users can only download files that they have uploaded themselves.It’s worth noting that FileSonic, like RapidShare, already has strong procedures in place to combat piracy. FileSonic uses digital fingerprinting technology from a content identification firm called Vobile to detect copyrighted material on its network and prohibit unauthorized sharing.
FileSonic also responds to takedown requests issued under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) by removing pirated content and blocking users who repeatedly infringe. The company has a designated DMCA agent and provides instructions for submitting a claim. They also allow individual users to report abuse.
Despite all of these precautions against piracy, FileSonic is going a step further by disabling its sharing functionality in entirety. When a user attempts to access content that is hosted on FileSonic, the site will display a message which explains that sharing has been discontinued and that only the original uploader can access the file. The company has not yet issued a full statement regarding the change in service.
