After Megaupload, FileSonic Disables File Sharing

In the wake of the Megaupload shutdown, FileSonic has disabled the file-sharing capability on its site, effective immediately.
"All sharing functionality on FileSonic is now disabled. Our service can only be used to upload and retrieve files that you have uploaded personally," the company said in a note on its Web site.
FileSonic did not elaborate as to why it disabled file sharing on its site, but the move comes days after the Department of Justice took down Megaupload.com for massive copyright infringement and indicted several of its executives.
FileSonic, which has offices in Surrey, Great Britain and Hong Kong, said it partners with Vobile Inc. in order to filter copyrighted content. Vobile's "digital fingerprinting technology will allow FileSonic to block your copyrighted materials from being illegitimately shared through its service," FileSonic's Web site says.
A free FileSonic account provides users with 10GB of storage, 1GB upload file size, and 30 days of storage time. For $9 per month, users get unlimited storage and storage time and a 5GB upload file size.
As noted by TorrentFreak, FileSonic had a rewards program that paid users when their files were downloaded. According to the DOJ indictment, Megaupload had a similar offering. "The conspirators allegedly paid users whom they specifically knew uploaded infringing content and publicized their links to users throughout the world," according to the DOJ.
"This combination of news all adds up to a pretty big deal. Filesonic isn't just some also-ran in the world of cyberlockers," TorrentFreak said. "The site is among the top 10 file-sharing sites on the Internet, with a quarter billion page views a month."

Posted in: Internet