Such major file hosting services as Filesonic and Fileserve have begun shutting down or crippling their services out of fear that they may end up following Megaupload’s management in being extradited to the US to face charges of facilitating copyright infringement on a grand scale.

Both Filesonic and Fileserve have changed their service so users can only download the files they uploaded, making their sites effectively useless – at least for the uses to which the vast majority of users put them.

Minor sites such as FileJungle and UploadStation have also followed suit, and several have even shut down entirely rather than risk US extradition. One service, Uploaded.to, even went so far as to ban all US IPs from its site.


In addition, massive numbers of files and user accounts have apparently been deleted as part of efforts to clean up the services.

Scores of services are also cancelling their affiliate programs, in which they formerly offered money and rewards to top uploaders, presumably out of concern that such schemes are a major element of the Megaupload prosecutions.

The removal of key features has proven particularly galling to those users who were unwise enough to purchase premium accounts, as they have now been left with privilege of downloading only the files they take the trouble to upload at “unlimited speeds” with “no waiting.”

Other services are more confident, at least in public – RapidShare has been portraying itself as a legitimate file hosting service which respects copyright, rather than a mere source of direct downloads for pirates, calling itself “absolutely legal.”

( im getting really tired of these shut downs my files are getting useless...)

rest of news will be posted in picture of next post