[LINK] itNews: 'File lockers scurry after Megaupload arrests'

[Roger Clarke]

[Where are we now - 54 cloud outages and counting?

[If God wanted to demonstrate that cloudsourcing isn't ready for 
prime time, she would do the following:
-   empower the courts to mount DOS attacks against all services
     offered by cloudsourcers if some portion of those services
     are judged to be in breach of the law
-   cause timid cloudsourcers to renege on the deals that their
     customers thought they had, and deny access to services

[Or maybe cloudsourcing simply isn't a viable approach to computing?


File lockers scurry after Megaupload arrests
Liam Tung
itNews
Jan 24, 2012 7:28 AM (45 minutes ago)
http://www.itnews.com.au/News/287934,file-lockers-scurry-after-megaupload-arrests.aspx

Several large digital file locker services have shut shop or cut 
file-sharing and affiliate features following last weekend's dramatic 
arrest of Megaupload's operators.

On Sunday, Filesonic, one of the largest file sharing locker services 
disabled all sharing functionality, limiting account holders' access 
to files that they uploaded personally. 

Filesonic is one of the top 10 file-sharing sites in the world and, 
like Megaupload, it appears to be based in Hong Kong and has servers 
in the US, according to the TorrentFreak blog. 

Several other digital file locker sites have also limited services or 
closed affiliate programs designed to reward those for uploading 
content, including another large service, Fileserve, according to 
reports on Reddit. 

A list of all the file sharing locker services purported to have shut 
or in the process of doing so has been posted on Pastebin. 

The second largest file locker service in the world, RapidShare, has 
said it is not concerned about suffering the same fate as Megaupload, 
releasing an explanation on its Facebook page on Saturday.

"One of the main differences between RapidShare and Megaupload is 
that we never wanted to escape from the legal access of any 
administration," it said.

"RapidShare AG was founded in Switzerland, was always based at the 
address cited in the imprint and was always managed with an authentic 
name without any anonymous intermediary companies.

"The drastic measures against Megaupload were obviously seen as 
necessary by the FBI because the situation was different there."

Megaupload's operators were indicted under US law for allegedly 
"engaging in a racketeering conspiracy, conspiring to commit 
copyright infringement, conspiring to commit money laundering and two 
substantive counts of criminal copyright infringement."


-- 
Roger Clarke                                 http://www.rogerclarke.com/
			            
Xamax Consultancy Pty Ltd      78 Sidaway St, Chapman ACT 2611 AUSTRALIA
                    Tel: +61 2 6288 1472, and 6288 6916
mailto:Roger.Clarke at xamax.com.au                http://www.xamax.com.au/

Visiting Professor in the Faculty of Law               University of NSW
Visiting Professor in Computer Science    Australian National University