Megaupload Shutdown: Should RapidShare and Dropbox Worry? 428
An anonymous reader sends in an article discussing whether other commonly used file storage sites are in danger of being shut down now that Megaupload has been closed. Quoting: "In the wake of the crackdown on the file-sharing website Megaupload, sites offering free content-sharing, file linking and digital locker services, such as RapidShare, SoundCloud and Dropbox, could be next in the crosshair of anti-piracy authorities. ... RapidShare and MediaFire are two of the biggest services left after Megaupload's exit. However, these sites have undergone a revamp, and now ... no longer host pirated content that could lead to a permanent ban. Others in the line of fire are DropBox, iCloud and Amazon S3, which support hosting any file a user uploads. Though their intention of supporting open file-sharing is legitimate, there is really no control over the type of content being uploaded."
Yes (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Yes (Score:5, Informative)
Dropbox doesn't have any such incentive for users, and they're free to download from. It's the uploader that pays for file upload space just like with web hosting, and he (nor Dropbox) cannot make money by uploading pirated content.
Probably not (Score:5, Informative)
Not unless they're paying users for posting popular pirated content like Megaupload was.
Paying pirates for pirating stuff is illegal, and it left MU without the excuse of "We didn't know." At least the other sites, as long as they don't reward pirates, can claim they're doing all they can to keep the site clean.
Re:At least on dropbox (Score:5, Informative)
if they close it I've still got my files locally
Are you certain of that?
If I delete a file from my dropbox folder on my laptop, it gets removed on my desktop.
What happens is someone with access to the dropbox server deletes a file?
Online "backup" services ARE NOT A VALID REPLACEMENT LOCAL BACKUP PROCEDURES.
They are for convenience and additional protection only.
Re:Safe Harbour (Score:5, Informative)
They had more than a thousand servers in the US, they collected money through US-based paypal from US customers for premium accounts, they made money through US-based ad networks, and they paid money to top up loaders in the US. In other words, they were doing substantial business in the US and therefore come under US law.
Ars Technica [arstechnica.com] goes into it in more detail.
Re:Yes (Score:4, Informative)
> last i checked, not only is it NOT illegal to pay for popular things, it's ALSO one of the fundamental principles behind the "free market".
Sure, it is called selling content. But you can only sell content you own, not content that someone pirated for you.
Dropbox and similar services get around this problem by offering a service, not content. You can upload your files, you can download your files, and you can even share your files. Dropbox has no incentive for illegal content.
Re:Yes (Score:5, Informative)
The standard created by the grokster SCOTUS case rest upon if they are "inducing" users to infringe copyright. I think that rapidshare and megaupload clearly fit that standard based upon their business models but dropbox does not.
Re:At least on dropbox (Score:3, Informative)
Dropbox is not an online backup solution, its a file synchronization solution. So yes, you delete it from the dropbox folder on one computer, and any other computer synced to that same folder will get it deleted as well. So copy your files out of that folder (cause moving will delete them on the others as well) before you delete them. Its a project management feature, not some nefarious evil filesharing scheme.
posted AC cause I deleted my /. long ago.
captcha: overshot
Re:At least on dropbox (Score:5, Informative)
It's not a backup solution. It's a Sync tool. Like SVN. If they took the servers down tomorrow drop box wouldn't get the latest list of files and wouldn't change the data on your pc.
Re:Doubt it + Obligatory Reddit link (Score:3, Informative)
I'm a DMCA agent and this may well make my job harder. Megauploads was incredible with their response time to DMCA notices. There are a lot of other sites out there, like Oron.com, that straight up ignore them, and many more that take quite a lot longer. It's absolutely absurd that they'd go after Megauploads.
Here's the full list of Reddit comments relating to that topic: http://www.reddit.com/r/technology/comments/onplj/feds_shut_down_megaupload/ [reddit.com]
Re:At least on dropbox (Score:5, Informative)
Heck, go look at their sales pitch.
"Dropbox - Secure backup, sync and sharing made easy"
This is plastered all over their web site [google.com], advertising, and over a million linked sites [google.com]
And you are probably correct, if they took the server down no data would be deleted.
That would be why I specifically asked about the data being deleted.
However, consider what would happen if someone disconnected the front end web farm from the storage system during a federal seizure. Also, what about catastrophic failure at the datacenter?
Are we certain that the dropbox servers wouldn't assume that there was no data for a little while?
I haven't seen the code, so we can only hope that the system is properly designed.
Or, we can do exactly what I said in the original post, and KEEP LOCAL BACKUPS.
Re:All that matters is that I worry. (Score:5, Informative)
when the excuse was always "child porn"? You don't hear it as much recently because they have the magic word "terrorist" to brut about now
Nah, they just shout loudly about terrorism to distract you while they quietly pass the "think of the children" laws like the "Protecting Children From Internet Pornographers Act of 2011" [cnet.com]
Re:At least on dropbox (Score:5, Informative)
It does maintain old copies of files. For 30 days, files you delete can be restored, and you can revert files to earlier versions. For a fee (an add-on called PackRat), they will keep old versions and deleted files indefinitely.
Re:uploaded.to already pulled (Score:4, Informative)