Shutting MegaUpload down has become a huge shock for both the file-sharing services and regular users. Can it give us all a lesson, and more importantly, will there be any other victims?
You don’t read the news at all, if you still haven’t heard the sad story of MegaUpload and its owner, who hasn’t only lost his business, but was also arrested with a possible long-term imprisonment.
You don’t use cloud storage services, if you don’t care about the above-mentioned news at all, which has taken aback the whole IT community. The media coverage of MegaUpload case can in some way compete with the death of Steve Jobs, much because of the fact that the company used to have millions of users. At the same time, Kim Schmitz’s arrest has also caused the huge concerns from the side of his file-hosting rivals, having raised the question: will there be any other victims?
In this respect, the frustrating actions of FileSonic, for instance, which has almost immediately closed its affiliate program and the file-sharing function, can’t but disappoint the whole user community. Nonetheless, it has revealed the essential trend: whoever feels guilty, will show the fear in actions. That is, perhaps, why other large competitors on the market haven’t expressed any worries about their future yet.
On the contrary, the existing cloud storages have lately faced considerable swell of traffic, much due to the fact that the former MegaUpload users had to select other options. What is essential here, both the large companies, like 4shared or RapidShare, and the medium-sized businesses, e.g. zShare, have increased the number of new clients to a considerable extent, the latter having got even better statistics data.
Of course, the experts have already expressed their opinions, if such a positive tendency will be long-lasting, admitting that the whole market will surely expand and develop. At the same time, they have got some doubts, if all the current players will survive, with all the haste around SOPA, even though the bill has been withdrawn now.
The only possible way to cope with the new living conditions and prosper, as the analysts state, is to upgrade the house rules and make them as strict as possible, likewise as the well-known oldies, like MediaFire or http://www.4shared.com, did a long time ago. The former has already posted an official message at their blog, asking the fresh users to be exceptionally cautious about the content they are willing to upload to the site, unless they wish to be banned soon.
On the other hand, if the rules and guidelines of file-hosting services aren’t properly modified, we will witness many more similar “MegaUpload” cases in future. That’s so, as no one can guarantee that there won’t be adobted any other regulating official documents, like SOPA.
All things considered, we will certainly understand the whole picture with the story of MegaUpload a bit later, when all the panic and speculations are over. Still, there can be even now made one important conclusion: whatever is done has its consequences, and one should be ready to face them.
TweetTags: Mega Upload Case, MegaUpload, MegaUpload Case, what is MegaUpload Case