Stop Online Piracy Act is Working

The Stop Online Piracy Act or SOPA bill announced last year in 2011 was proposed to counter online piracy and apparently, help people keep their jobs. However, announcement of postponing the bill came in January 2012 due to the mounting pressure by the Internet powers – Wikipedia and WordPress to name a few.

All is well but not ends well

Though the SOPA bill may not have been passed, authorities have rained down on 1 of the biggest file sharing websites; Megaupload. It has forced the file sharing service to shut down its operations with follow up arrests of its management and founders.

And the ripple effect ensued. Here’s some quick updates thanks to LowYat members.

FileServe – No longer renewing/selling premium accounts.

FileJungle – Deleting files. Locked in the US.

UploadStation – Locked in the US.

FileSonic – News is arbitrary (under FBI investigation).

VideoBB – Closed. May disappear soon.

Uploaded – Banned in US and FBI went after the disappeared owners.

FilePost – Deleting all materials but will maintain executables, PDFs and TXT files.

Videoz – Closed and locked in the countries affiliated with the US.

4shared – Deleting files with copyright and waits in line at the FBI.

MediaFire – Called to testify in the next 90 days and it will open doors to the FBI.

Org torrent – Could vanish with everything within 30 days as “he is under criminal investigation”

Network Share mIRC – Awaiting the decision of the case to continue or terminate everything.

Where Malaysia stands in all of this?

The Internet community here as well weren’t too happy about SOPA and people were talking about it.

the fall of file sharing sites; now there is no reason to get UNIFI

So what I’m now interested in is will the above ripples affect the broadband user signup rate. Especially services currently pushing fibre to the home.

Updated 25 February 2012

Found an interesting comment on another website made about the status of some of the file hosting providers. Have a look.

• MegaUpload.com (Down) [TakeDown]
• Easy-Share.com/Crocko.com (Closed affiliate program)
• EnterUpload.com (Down) [Redirect]
• FileServe.com (As good as dead)
• FileSonic.com (As good as dead) [Closed affiliate program; Sharing/downloading disabled]
• FileJungle.com (As good as dead) [Closed affiliate program; Sharing/downloading disabled]
• FilePost.com (Closed affiliate program; Suspending accounts with infringing material)
• GlumboUploads.com (Closed affiliate program)
• GrooveFile.com (Dead)
• MegaShare.com (Closed affiliate program)
• UploadStation.com (As good as dead) [Closed affiliate program; Sharing/downloading disabled]
• Uploaded.to (Blocked U.S. Visitors)
• Uploading.com (Closed affiliate program)
• VideoZer.com (Closed affiliate program)
• VideoBB.com (Closed affiliate program)
• x7.to (Dead)
• oron.com (Closed affiliate program)
• turbobit.net (Blocked U.S. Visitors)

The commenter also mentioned US IP traffic is now blocked for most file hosting providers. Interesting.