Dark Days Are Upon Us....

In the wake of MegaUpload getting shut down, and it's founders being arrested, a large percentage of file hosting sites are running fucking scared...


MegaUpload.com – Closed.(on the bright side... I'll never have to encounter the dreaded 'you have watched 72 minutes' shit anymore...haha)



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


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


EnterUpload.com – Down.


FileJungle.com – Affiliate program was closed. Deleting multiple files. Banning Accounts. Locked in the U.S.


FilePost.com – Affiliate program was closed. Banning Accounts. Deleting all material.


FileServe.com – Affiliate program was closed. Deleting multiple files. Banning Accounts.


FileSonic.com – Affiliate program was closed. Deleting multiple files. Banning Accounts. Under FBI invstg.


Hotfile.com – Affiliate program was closed.
open doors. Pro FBI.


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


MegaShare.com – Affiliate program was closed.


Netload.in – Affiliate program was closed.


Oron.com – Affiliate program was closed. Deleting multiple files. 
Banning Accounts.


UploadBox.com – Closing. All files will be deleted on January 30th.


Uploaded.to – Not available in U.S. Available in other countries.


Uploading.com – Affiliate program was closed.


UploadStation.com – Affiliate program was closed. Deleting files. Banning Accounts. Locked in the U.S.


VideoBB.com – Affiliate program was closed. Will disappear soon.


Videoz.com – Closed and locked in the countries affiliated with the USA.


Wupload.com – Closed affiliate program before Megaupload fiasco citing financial reasons.


x7.to – Closing.

This is complete bullshit. 
I hear talk of "the free ride being over"... 
Fuck you... That's a cop out. 
Let me tell you about a "free ride"... 


I'm relatively new to file sharing. up until about 4-5 years ago I bought every single record and movie in my possession. I didn't have immediate internet access... I had no clue. 
Friends would tell me about downloading an album or song, and I would chastise them.
I loved going to Strawberries every Friday, after cashing my check, and scanning shelves for cool shit. 
 Downloading was too easy. These faggots were cheating. 
I loved the whole experience... Still do.  Opening that sucker, reading the liner notes.... Everything about buying a new CD makes my dick hard, and these morons were missing out. When I finally did get regular internet access, I was floored by how much shit I was missing out on. You gotta think... How many amazing bands I was completely unaware of. A multitude of blogs with download links expanded my musical palate a million fold.I downloaded a shit ton of music. It took me less than 3 months to fill a 1.5 TB HD. 
I was hypnotized... 
And, for the first time, making educated decisions about which music to buy... and what was utter fucking garbage.
I'm sure I'm NOT alone. 
I spent most of my life at the mercy of listening to mainstream bands because I hadn't the foggiest clue of a whole new wave of shit that had been growing under the surface... An entire generation of acts. Had it not been for these blogs, I would have never purchased albums from (just to name a few) Killswitch Engage, Lamb Of God, Mastodon, Baroness, The Melvins, Trouble, Crowbar, Clutch... I could go on for days... I maybe eventually would have discovered and loved these bands, but... as any of you old enough to remember the days before the internet know... We only had so much money, man... And how many CD's or tapes did we buy back in the day based on hearing one song we liked, or a good review, and pay a ridiculous amount of our hard earned fucking money for, only to bring it home and be profoundly disappointed with the rest of the trash contained on it? I got weary of committing 10-20 bucks on something that could suck.
Buying a CD sight unseen was/is a frightening prospect... So I played it safe. 


On top of that, how many fucking records did I have to RE-BUY because they were lost, stolen or damaged? I've purchased at LEAST  20 copies of Appetite For Destruction in my life. Cassette... CD... Vinyl... And that's just one example.


FREE RIDE MY FUCKING ASS..


I've never had lots of money... And for years I spend thousands upon thousands of dollars on music. Most of which I had already purchased previously. And sites like MegaUpload guaranteed that I would no longer have to do that...


So...Why go after them, rather than the "owners" of the online lockers that contained all of this illegal shit? After all.. You put a Kilo of cocaine in a locker at the airport, someone else grabs it... They aren't taking airport officials in custody, are they?


Of course, the fact that MegaUpload and it's whopping 4% of Internet traffic was essentially erased from the Internet came the day after massive and successful protests of SOPA and PIPA have spurred all kinds of theories that the takedown was just a giant middle finger to the Internet.


Let's dig into this a bit...


"MegaUpload, which the U.S. government shut down.... is a Hong Kong-based ‘cyberlocker’ service that allows users to download pirated films, TV shows, music and e-books with just a few clicks."  


This sentence vastly misrepresents the purpose of MegaUpload.


 In fact... MegaUpload always responded promptly and correctly to all correctly filled in DMCA takedown notices. 


Therefore, under US law, the site acted legally at all times. I'll be interested to see what invented evidence they use in court to show the contrary. 
The real reason for shutting MegaUpload down probably had much more to do with their new music store which would cut out the record company middle man, and therefore reshape the industry, which was only weeks away from a full public launch.


Guess what... record companies don't want to be "cut out" of the picture, and they certainly don't want artists taking 90% of profits, or to be paid for free downloads, as would have happened under MegaUpload's plans. 


Wait... Maybe not...
"The real reason MegaUpload was taken down has more to do with a large, well-documented collection of staggeringly flagrant illegal actions, many of which took place long before MegaBox was ever announced.. Now, there there are plenty of completely legitimate bones to be picked with the way the takedown took place, but to sum it all up to “‘The man’ was afraid of MegaBox” is a gross oversimplification. Before we get into any of the greyer areas of intent, lets just take a look at some of the things in that 72 page indictment, shall we?

There sure is a lot on that indictment, and I recommend  – if you really, really care – that you give it a skim yourself, but here are some highlights. It’s worth mentioning that Ortmann and Van Der Kolk, mentioned below, were MegaUpload’s CTO and “Programmer-in-Chief,” respectively.

From the section relating to Count Two — Conspiracy to commit copyright infringement — and the subsection relating to “Overt Acts”:


On or about August 31, 2006, VAN DER KOLK sent an e-mail to an associate entitled “lol”. Attached to the message was a screenshot of a Megaupload.com filedownload page for the file “Alcohol 120 1.9.5 3105complete.rar” with a description of “Alcohol120, con crack!!!! By ChaOtiX!”. The copyrighted software “Alcohol 120” is a CD/DVD burning software program sold by www.alcohol-soft.com.

q.
On or about December 3, 2006, DOTCOM distributed a Megaupload.com link to a music file entitled “05-50_cent_feat._mobb_deep-nah-c4.mp3” to ORTMANN. A copy of this file was still present on servers controlled by the Mega Conspiracy as of December 20, 2011.
y.
On or about May 17, 2007, a representative from Google AdSense, an Internet advertising company, sent an e-mail to DOTCOM entitled “Google AdSense Account Status.” In the e-mail, the representative stated that “[d]uring our most recent review of your site[Megaupload.com,]” Google AdSense specialists found “numerous pages” with links to, among other things, “copyrighted content,” and therefore Google AdSense “will no longer be able to work with you.” The e-mail contains links to specific examples of offending content located on Megaupload.com. DOTCOM and his conspirators have continued to operate and financially profit from the Megaupload.com website after receiving this notice.

vv.

On or about November 23, 2008, DOTCOM received an e-mail from a Mega Site user entitled “video problems.” The e-mail described, “I’ve been trying to watch Dexter episodes, but… the sound doesn’t match up with the visual… I didn’t choose to use your site, you seem to dominate episodes 6 and 7 of Dexter on alluc[.org, a linking site].” DOTCOM forwarded the e-mail to ORTMANN and wrote, “… on many forums people complain that our video / sound are not in sync… We need to solve this asap!” “Dexter” is a copyrighted television series on the premium cable channel Showtime.".  .GeekOSystem.com


Dude... I'm confused. I'll get to the bottom of this... In the meantime...
I'm following the lead of the kind folks over at  Angry Chairs:


"Will this stop me from downloading? fuck no it wont. I now vow to never help this industry out again, Ill send my money straight to the artists no fuckin middle men and I hope you all do as well."


So... What do we do??

In the meantime...

NERDS.... Earn your keep and FIX THIS.