WTF?

[ExtraStiffy]

When did Hotfile get shut down?

[Rikwar]

Just a few hours ago, and beleive me when I say I'm bloody pissed off, lost all my legit files

WASHINGTON - Hollywood studios have won a copyright case against Hotfile Corp. after a Florida judge on Tuesday ordered the file-hosting website to pay $80 million in damages.

The court also ordered Hotfile to shut down within 20 days unless the website uses "state-of-the-art content identification and filtering technology" to weed out pirated copies of movies and other material that users upload.

The judgment, by U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams of the Southern District of Florida, said that Hotfile and its principal, Anton Titov, had waived their right to appeal.

Motion Picture Association of America CEO Chris Dodd said in a statement that the judgment was another step "toward protecting an Internet that works for everyone."

The court found Hotfile liable for copyright infringement in August and rejected its "safe harbour" defence under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. The court also found Titov personally liable for infringement.

Hotfile attorney Valentin Gurvits declined to comment.

[Greebo]

No multiple redundancy? Maybe it's time to boycott US servers -- servers in the Cayman Islands anyone?
Still, I'm sorry for your loss, Rikwar.

[fleet]

ARGH! Almost all of my adult visual novels were on Hotfile. I've found a new place for them, but uploading will take me some time.

[Rikwar]

No multiple redundancy? Maybe it's time to boycott US servers -- servers in the Cayman Islands anyone?
Still, I'm sorry for your loss, Rikwar.

Thanks Greebo what got my goat is that there was no warning about the shutdown, they had 20 days so the least they could have done is keep the site up a couple of days so that people could download there personal files, those who have signed up and paid for montly or a year account as got robbed, try and sue em now I think not
So now I'll be using Mediafire and Mega..and not put all my eggs in the same basket !!

Sorry about the inconfidence fleet !

[Greebo]

I don't understand American law -- is there no recourse against heavy handed, disproportionate judgements? I thought the UK law was stupid enough, with Mr Justice Arnold instructing UK ISPs to blacklist The Pirate Bay website last year, but that was comparatively easy to circumvent.

It would seem US law is corrupt and stupid to an unbelievable degree -- what about the millions of innocent and innocentish account holders? Would they nuke LA or NY if there appeared to be a source of illicit DVDs in either city? Somehow I think not.

Similarly if a bank rented out security lockers and a dodgy setup rented a few for nefarious purposes, would corporate interests be allowed to sue the pants off the bank and close down all accounts without recompense? Or something similar with DHL perhaps?

Would it help if, say, change.org, avaaz, or 38 degrees was used to petition the US Supreme Court about this, possibly in conjunction with a class action "habeus corpus" suit for accountholder access to files?

Has nothing been learned from Megaupload?

[LRM]

@ Greebo;
The people no longer matter here, only the corporations.
The people are too busy with their own lives and pay zero attention to how their elected representatives vote. Name recognition gets them elected time after time no matter how badly they screw the people.
How do you make the voting public check the congressional voting record BEFORE they cast a vote?
Lou
PS Obama care is a good thing!!!

[ExtraStiffy]

ARGH! Almost all of my adult visual novels were on Hotfile. I've found a new place for them, but uploading will take me some time.

Just as long as it's not RapidGator, which is anything but!

[fleet]

ARGH! Almost all of my adult visual novels were on Hotfile. I've found a new place for them, but uploading will take me some time.

Just as long as it's not RapidGator, which is anything but!

All of the files have been transferred. I put them on Google Drive. No registration is required to download, and there is no waiting or advertisements.

See my posts in the all sexy games section for descriptions and download links.

Very respectfully,
fleet