File Sharing - Precautions

[Mark Thomas]

Following the forced closure of MegaUpload another large sharing site, Filesonic, has suspended it's sharing facility and now restricts access to files only to those who uploaded them. This is seen in the internet industry as something of a panic reaction and at present there doesn't look to be a stampede of other sites keen to follow their example. Whilst some no doubt major on illegal content most of these sites, such as MediaShare which we widely use, meet a real and entirely legitimate need but there's no doubt that they can't keep tabs on everything which is shared and probably all of them host some indisputably illegal material. So there is  a real risk that, once the case against MegaUppload and the US legislative position becomes clearer, more sites may decided to copy Filesonic's action as self-protection.

So we need to be on our guard against the sudden closure to open access of MediaFire or any other sharing site where we've uploaded music. It's not so bad if the uploader retains access to his files, as in Filesonic's case, because the files are safe even if they can't easily be accessed by others, but to guard against total loss of files to us as a community, I suggest that all of us who have uploaded music check that we have copies of our uploads on our own computers? Although here at UC we may have to deal with a short term loss of content whilst new hosts or new ways of accessing the recordings are found, at least the recordings themselves aren't lost for good and all. I back up the forum every night, so I can reconstruct what is available in our community, if not immediately from the forum, from the posts in the Downloads section.

Luckily, through downloads all the recordings are now widely distributed throughout the UC community too.

This is an evolving situation and all we can do at present is to take sensible precautions.

[albion]

This is an evolving situation and all we can do at present is to take sensible precautions.

Thanks, Mark. So there seem to be two potential scenarios which would alter the situation here at UC: the temporary removal of the ability to share personal files, or (more drastically) the permanent removal of the files themselves by some process beyond the control of the uploading member.

In light of the possibility that the latter scenario may come to pass there is a real necessity for members to have some back-up retrieval system in place. The British music archive (over 1000 files), for example, is copied onto memory sticks and most of it is also onto CDRs. As Mark also points out, many of these files (and those from other UC download threads) will have been downloaded by members, so a communal effort of reconstruction (if needed) would be feasible. Hopefully, though, the situation will not deteriorate to the point where this is required.

[semloh]

I am pleased that Mark raised this issue.

Unlike most of the others, Filesonic - like MU - has a base in HK and so may believe it is vulnerable to an MU-style FBI action. I think they may be attempting to clear the decks in advance... but along the way they have left subscribers out of pocket, download-related payments have ceased, and many users are now stymied. I suspect there may be a bit of frantic 'creative accounting' going on - and there may be more to the activities of these businesses than a simple upload-download business!

I have noticed several new providers spring up recently - maybe even post-MU - and my feeling is that they will proliferate, moving out of the reach of the US DoJ as they do, simply because there's a lot of money to be made.

It's very frustrating for people who are using them to share perfectly legal files. Let's hope that Mediafire is unaffected, so that we may continue to share our wonderful music.