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Hotfile shut down

55 points| bloody0815 | 12 years ago |hotfile.com | reply

52 comments

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[+] Fuxy|12 years ago|reply
Every time they pull this crap a lot of non us copyrighted fan subbed anime (i enjoy watching) disappear off the internet.

Edit: Yes i get them from fan subbing sites because no company is willing to license it and sell it. I buy what i can and take what i can't.

I'm certain there's tonnes of legitimate content being lost on every shutdown some of it permanently if it's not very common or popular.

I think people should be allowed to sue the MPAA or RIAA if they take down content they don't own.

[+] rakoo|12 years ago|reply
Morale of the story: seed it on Bittorrent. Centralized hosting will never be as reliable as distributed methods of distribution in the long term.
[+] peroo|12 years ago|reply
The irony of the situation is that it's unprofitable to license anime for the US precisely because the fansubbing community already distributes "free" copies, and most anime-fans consume the majority of their content that way.
[+] TylerE|12 years ago|reply
"non-us copyrighted"? Ever heard of the Berne Convention?
[+] mafuyu|12 years ago|reply
You can find pretty much all you want over XDCC and Bittorrent, which are the primary methods which fansubbers distribute their videos.
[+] kr4|12 years ago|reply
"Sites like Hotfile ...do a serious disservice to audiences who deserve high-quality, legitimate viewing experiences online."

"This judgment by the court is another important step toward protecting an Internet that works for everyone"

Edit: I get a feelling that these quotes in the article have been created off the hn title generator tool [0]

[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6815282

[+] mschuster91|12 years ago|reply
And once again the question, what about the users with legitimate content on the site? Megaupload all over again?

Don't prosecutors ever learn? Megaupload blew up in their faces and now the next one...

[+] ritonlajoie|12 years ago|reply
Well, the reverse is true, don't users ever learn ?
[+] casca|12 years ago|reply
The media companies need to do something against "piracy", otherwise it looks like they're complicit.

The MPAA/RIAA/equivalent are industry bodies that are funded to protect their members. These members want to see a return on their investment, and press coverage about shutting down a high profile filesharing site shows that they're doing something. Everyone wins.

Of course it will have no impact on the availability of filesharing sites. If anything, the rise in bitcoin mining malware will make it even more profitable to set up such services.

[+] nly|12 years ago|reply
So... when are the Feds going to shutdown Dropbox? More or less the same thing.
[+] nolok|12 years ago|reply
Afaik Dropbox stops the sharing of file once it goes beyong a given (relatively limited) bandwidth. Not making it legal, but making it pretty much impossible to use it as a "file share" on sharing forums.
[+] wmf|12 years ago|reply
Dropbox is a pay-to-upload business model but cyberlockers use a pay-to-download business model (they used to pay referral fees to uploaders, but this was so obviously shady that everybody is dropping it). The judge in the Hotfile case ruled that Hotfile had vicarious liability for copyright infringement because they profited more from distributing more popular content.
[+] Sami_Lehtinen|12 years ago|reply
This is so wrong. I use these single click file hosting sites all the time to share totally legal content with my friends. It's just bad idea to attach 2 GB file to an email. Also one link can be shared with group of people in Skype chat or so, without requiring me to upload same data to everyone who's interested.
[+] robobro|12 years ago|reply
A no-name piracy site dies because it broke the law. I'm not grieving.
[+] edem|12 years ago|reply
This reminds me of a hydra. You cut off 1 head and it grows 2 more in its place.

They need to realize that they are tilting at windmills.

[+] ghshephard|12 years ago|reply
Keep in mind - the objective is not to shut down the sites, but make it difficult enough that your average person goes to legal sites instead.

Take me for example - I wouldn't have the faintest clue where to go find an illegal copy of a TV season on a "File Locker" - but I have zero problem finding legit stuff on iTunes or Amazon or Netflix.

I think the MPAA / RIAA have been very effective - in 2004/2005, there were a ton of places I knew about to download stolen content - but today - nope.

[+] maxerickson|12 years ago|reply
A bunch of sites shut down when they saw what happened to Megaupload (at least, it seemed like it. Maybe it was normal attrition).
[+] menubar|12 years ago|reply
Problem is, tilting at windmills is what they do best. Job security for as long as they can keep it going.

Sorta like Microsoft Support Technicians.

[+] derrzzaa|12 years ago|reply
Wonder if they have a licence for Helvetica used in the banner.
[+] callum85|12 years ago|reply
You don't need a licence to use a typeface in a design, only to install a font file on a computer. And OS X ships with a version of Helvetica so they might have just used that.