Filesonic, Wupload disappear after fall from grace

Two websites that were once among the top file locker websites in the world, have disappeared offline, marking the end of a steep downwards decline in user numbers and market influence.

Filesonic and Wupload, two sister sites were at the top of their game in the earliest days of 2012, seeing a temporary increase in activity following the seizure and closure of Megaupload.com, one of their rivals. However, soon after, and likely in response to Mega's takedown and the arrest of its owner, Kim Dotcom, Filesonic announced that it would no longer allow third party sharing and that it planned to shut down its reward scheme. Wupload similarly closed down its affiliate scheme in late 2011 and in April this year became a backup site, where only files that users had personally uploaded, could be downloaded from it.

This led to nose dives in traffic, as the alexa ranking histories of both site's show. While Alexa is hardly a gospel traffic tracking service, it does provide a rough idea of what happened.

And now it looks like the final death knell has come, with both sites disappearing.

Some have pointed the finger at organisations like the MPAA and RIAA for scaring the owners of these sites into submission, while others have said with a centralised structure like those employed by file lockers, they were doomed from the start. Others still have been angered at the lack of contact from the owners of these sites. In one blog comment, a user suggested that ultimately, Filesonic and Wupload took their user's money and ran.

KitGuru Says: What do you guys think? Should Filesonic and Wupload at least let fans of the original services know what's going on? Or are they just legitimately protecting themselves from what would undoubtedly be further legal threads and action from copyright lobbyists?

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