Wupload, FileServer Disable File Sharing Functionality
The number of file sharing sites that have changed their business model, ceased operations or disabled part of their service continues to increase after the Megaupload takedown earlier this year. Sites like FileSonic have disabled all file sharing capabilities, while Uploaded.to blocked visitors from the U.S. from accessing the site. Others, like Uploadbox, shut down completely.
In the beginning of April word got out that the MPAA was targeting additional file hosting sites, which Alfred Perry, vice president for worldwide content protection at Paramount Pictures, called rogue cyberlockers. Among the services mentioned by Perry was the popular file host Wupload, one of the top 1000 sites on the Internet according to Alexa.
Wupload, likely as a consequence of that speech and the Megaupload takedown, have disabled all file sharing capabilities on the website. This basically means that files can only be downloaded by the original uploader, and no one else.
When you look at the sites reach over at Alexa, you will notice that it has dropped 24% in the last seven days, and more than 40% in the last 3 months.
Wupload is on the other hand not the only file hosting and sharing service that has changed its business model recently. Fileserve, a top 300 site according to Alexa, has also disabled sharing capabilities for all accounts after being mentioned by Perry. Users are notified on the website's homepage that users can only download and retrieve files that they have uploaded personally to the file host.
When you look at the reach, you will notice that the site too has lost in the last three months. The seven day reach lists a decline of 9%, while the 3 month reach a decline of nearly 40%.
The sharp decline since January can be attributed in both cases to the closing of the affiliate program. Affiliates were rewarded when they brought new paying customers to the file sharing site. It is likely that we will see further decline in the coming months when users who want to share files flock to the remaining file sharing sites that still allow that to happen.
Closing Words
It is likely that we will see the fallout continue for a while, even though no operator or company has yet been convicted. If you need file sharing capabilities, you are probably better off currently using services such as Dropbox or SkyDrive, as it is unlikely that those will be targeted anytime soon.
What's your take on all of this? Let me know in the comments.
Update: Wupload has closed its doors for good. The website and service is no longer available.
Advertisement
Doesn’t Windows 8 know that www. or http:// are passe ?
Well it is a bit difficulty to distinguish between name.com domains and files for instance.
I know a service made by google that is similar to Google bookmarks.
http://www.google.com/saved
@Ashwin–Thankful you delighted my comment; who knows how many “gamers” would have disagreed!
@Martin
The comments section under this very article (3 comments) is identical to the comments section found under the following article:
https://www.ghacks.net/2023/08/15/netflix-is-testing-game-streaming-on-tvs-and-computers/
Not sure what the issue is, but have seen this issue under some other articles recently but did not report it back then.
Omg a badge!!!
Some tangible reward lmao.
It sucks that redditors are going to love the fuck out of it too.
With the cloud, there is no such thing as unlimited storage or privacy. Stop relying on these tech scums. Purchase your own hardware and develop your own solutions.
This is a certified reddit cringe moment. Hilarious how the article’s author tries to dress it up like it’s anything more than a png for doing the reddit corporation’s moderation work for free (or for bribes from companies and political groups)
Almost al unlmited services have a real limit.
And this comment is written on the dropbox article from August 25, 2023.
First comment > @ilev said on August 4, 2012 at 7:53 pm
For the God’s sake, fix the comments soon please! :[
Yes. Please. Fix the comments.
With Google Chrome, it’s only been 1,500 for some time now.
Anyone who wants to force me in such a way into buying something that I can get elsewhere for free will certainly never see a single dime from my side. I don’t even know how stupid their marketing department is to impose these limits on users instead of offering a valuable product to the paying faction. But they don’t. Even if you pay, you get something that is also available for free elsewhere.
The algorithm has also become less and less savvy in terms of e.g. English/German translations. It used to be that the bot could sort of sense what you were trying to say and put it into different colloquialisms, which was even fun because it was like, “I know what you’re trying to say here, how about…” Now it’s in parts too stupid to translate the simplest sentences correctly, and the suggestions it makes are at times as moronic as those made by Google Translations.
If this is a deep-learning AI that learns from users’ translations and the phrases they choose most often – which, by the way, is a valuable, moneys worthwhile contribution of every free user to this project: They invest their time and texts, thereby providing the necessary data for the AI to do the thing as nicely as they brag about it in the first place – alas, the more unprofessional users discovered the translator, the worse the language of this deep-learning bot has become, the greater the aggregate of linguistically illiterate users has become, and the worse the language of this deep-learning bot has become, as it now learns the drivel of every Tom, Dick and Harry out there, which is why I now get their Mickey Mouse language as suggestions: the inane language of people who can barely spell the alphabet, it seems.
And as a thank you for our time and effort in helping them and their AI learn, they’ve lowered the limit from what was once 5,000 to now 1,500…? A big “fuck off” from here for that! Not a brass farthing from me for this attitude and behaviour, not in a hundred years.
When will you put an end to the mess in the comments?
Ghacks comments have been broken for too long. What article did you see this comment on? Reply below. If we get to 20 different articles we should all stop using the site in protest.
I posted this on [https://www.ghacks.net/2023/09/28/reddit-enforces-user-activity-tracking-on-site-to-push-advertising-revenue/] so please reply if you see it on a different article.
Comment redirected me to [https://www.ghacks.net/2012/08/04/add-search-the-internet-to-the-windows-start-menu/] which seems to be the ‘real’ article it is attached to
Comment redirected me to [https://www.ghacks.net/2012/08/04/add-search-the-internet-to-the-windows-start-menu/] which seems to be the ‘real’ article it is attached to
Article Title: Reddit enforces user activity tracking on site to push advertising revenue
Article URL: https://www.ghacks.net/2023/09/28/reddit-enforces-user-activity-tracking-on-site-to-push-advertising-revenue/
No surprises here. This is just the beginning really. I cannot see a valid reason as to why anyone would continue to use the platform anymore when there are enough alternatives fill that void.
I’m not sure if there is a point in commenting given that comments seem to appear under random posts now, but I’ll try… this comment is for https://www.ghacks.net/2023/09/28/reddit-enforces-user-activity-tracking-on-site-to-push-advertising-revenue/
My temporary “solution”, if you can call it that, is to use a VPN (Mullvad in my case) to sign up for and access Reddit via a European connection. I’m doing that with pretty much everything now, at least until the rest of the world catches up with GDPR. I don’t think GDPR is a magical privacy solution but it’s at least a first step.