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Former top 10 file hosting website Filesonic has been offline for the last couple of days, and nobody knows why, and when (or if) the website will ever come back up again.
Filesonic's woes, much like all of its competitors in the file hosting industry, started back in January when Megaupload was seized and shuttered by the US government.
Filesonic immediately responded to this latest legal threat and disabled its third-party file hosting service, which meant that only the original uploader would have access to files uploaded to the website. The rewards program, rewarding uploaders, was also closed down. This made Filesonic more akin to a personal cloud hosting service.
While services like Filesonic had definitely been used by pirates in the past to distribute music, movies and software online, these services also served a vital function for those seeking to share legitimate files that would otherwise be impossible via email and other means. Filesonic perhaps hoped that there would be enough legitimate use of its website to warrant a continued existence.
Unfortunately, the move, seen as drastic at the time by the industry, produced an immediate negative effect in terms of visitor traffic. Traffic has dropped by as much as 90% since January, when these changes were first made.
But despite these changes, Filesonic was still nominated by the International Intellectual Property Alliance as an "infringing distribution hub" in February, and was sued in July by adult entertainment company Flava Works for copyright infringement.
These setbacks all seems to have culminated in what could be the undignified end of Filesonic when, in the last few days, the entire website went offline. While the downtime could easily be a technical issue that will be resolved in short order, the owners of the website failed to respond when contacted by TorrentFreak.
Filesonic's woes, much like all of its competitors in the file hosting industry, started back in January when Megaupload was seized and shuttered by the US government.
Filesonic immediately responded to this latest legal threat and disabled its third-party file hosting service, which meant that only the original uploader would have access to files uploaded to the website. The rewards program, rewarding uploaders, was also closed down. This made Filesonic more akin to a personal cloud hosting service.
While services like Filesonic had definitely been used by pirates in the past to distribute music, movies and software online, these services also served a vital function for those seeking to share legitimate files that would otherwise be impossible via email and other means. Filesonic perhaps hoped that there would be enough legitimate use of its website to warrant a continued existence.
Unfortunately, the move, seen as drastic at the time by the industry, produced an immediate negative effect in terms of visitor traffic. Traffic has dropped by as much as 90% since January, when these changes were first made.
But despite these changes, Filesonic was still nominated by the International Intellectual Property Alliance as an "infringing distribution hub" in February, and was sued in July by adult entertainment company Flava Works for copyright infringement.
These setbacks all seems to have culminated in what could be the undignified end of Filesonic when, in the last few days, the entire website went offline. While the downtime could easily be a technical issue that will be resolved in short order, the owners of the website failed to respond when contacted by TorrentFreak.