Baldwins
Added: Jan 31, 2012
On 19 January, United States authorities shut down Megaupload.com, one of the world’s largest digital storage and file sharing sites, charging several people, including a number of New Zealand residents, with federal crimes including racketeering, money laundering and criminal copyright violations. In the wake of the shutdown, similar service providers, such as FileSonic, have nervously disabled all services allowing users to download each others’ files.
Megaupload offered an online storage, ‘digital locker’ or ‘cloud’ service where users uploaded digital content to servers controlled by Megaupload. So long as internet access is available, users have access to the stored content, enabling them to easily share that content between devices or with other parties. Everyone who has lost digital photographs or who has been forced into emailing themselves large files in order to share information with another computer or device will understand how useful this cloud technology can be when used for legitimate purposes.