I used it to store embedded linux distro images that I made up for flash cards. 250meg each. Now I've got a bunch of broken links and some work to do. Looks like I'm going to have to suffer through all of Rapidshare's junk now.
If they don't happen to have some condition which makes them hard to use for your situation, I would recommend http://www.mediafire.com. I've not used them as an uploader myself, but to me they seem to have the cleanest, most modern interface and no annoying timers for downloading and so on. That should be encouraged.
Isn't that replacing one dubious service with another though? Right now, I'd imagine that something akin to Amazon S3 is the only reliable solution, and even then I bet they have their fair share of infringing material stored.
It's quite the rabbit hole the FBI have gone down with this action.
They don't have the shady history that Megaupload did, and appear to actually comply with DMCA-requests. That will hopefully keep them safe for a while. If it doesn't, hosting files for "everyone" is a doomed business.
Megaupload complied extremely quickly with DCMA requests by all reports. The non-compliance cited in the indictment appears to be somewhat of a technicality - at worst, only removing links instead of the file. Are you sure Mediafire complies more zealously than Megaupload did?
I don't understand why you view removing the links and not the content as a technicality and not the crux of the issue. If you're ordered to remove content from your servers and do not do so, it's unsurprising that you aren't really complying with the DMCA.
Removing links isn't the same as removing content.
Re-reading the DMCA yesterday was the first time I realized that it actually does require a service like Dropbox to remove every user's copy of a file upon receiving a notice of infringement even if only one of those copies is not allowed and the rest are entirely legal.
Mediafire also don't give incentives for people to put popular files on their system as far as I can tell.
With most services like MegaUpload/Rapidshare you get paid when people download your files, hence their popularity, its a business for a lot of uploaders.
While I agree that you should encourage proper business, I don't think that Mediafire is a good solution for the mentioned purpose. They take $9/month for 4 GB storage, and $49/month for 10 GB storage. That's really expensive!
For $10/month you can easily get a VServer with 20 GB disk space or more. For $50/month you can rent a Dedicated Server with 2000 GB hard disks. (... assuming that someone who works with embedded linux images has no problem with installing a tiny webserver and making regular security upgrades)
I do have my own $50 Dedicated server that serves the web portion but if I have to serve the large files as well, I overrun my bandwidth allocation. File-locker services seemed like an easy solution.
If you're providing resources for the community which are being well-used, then I suggest sending round some emails to various well known hosting companies or other tech firms asking if they will host you for free in exchange for some sponsorship/advertising. This is pretty common.
Also, if youre just hosting linux images, can you not put them on github, google code or similar?
Out of interest, is there any reason you don't store and serve them from Amazon S3? It's pretty easy to upload files to that using their web interface, or Panic's Transmit client if you're on OSX ( http://panic.com/transmit/ )
I seem to remember S3 also makes it easy to turn on an optional .torrent link, to save you some bandwidth charges.
Last month's transfer (if everyone who clicked the link finished the DL) would have been more than $100 on S3. Its just a hobby. I really was hoping not to spend much if anything on it.
Depending on where you are, but: OVH is known to offer dedicated servers with very generous bandwidth allotments for very little money. E.g. their Dutch budget brand http://www.isgenoeg.nl offers a basic server with 5TB, then 10Mbps bandwidth for EUR 15/month, and their UK http://www.kimsufi.co.uk/ is similar.
(No personal experience, offer seems valid for nationals only, WebHostingTalk suggests there's little support, OVH apparently change their upstream providers all the time to get the best possible deals - you get a lot of bandwidth but latency varies from day to day. Seems acceptable for a simple file server.)
Amazon doesn't break S3 out in their financial reports, but estimates are that they made half a Billion dollars in revenue in 2010, and certainly more than that in 2011.
That was a question to parent. _Of course_ S3 costs money. That's why it's not reasonable to compare it to a service like Megaupload, where you only needed to pay if you wanted to store over 200GB total, or have individual files larger than 2GB.
Get a DreamHost account and use their "Files Forever" feature. If you don't want to pay for it, I'll happily host stuff for you (I'll give you a shell account to upload to). Send an e-mail to me via my profile if you're interested.
From the ToS: "We have a policy of terminating, without notice and without recourse, accounts of subscribers or account holders who are repeat infringers of copyright, and you agree that we may apply that policy to your account or subscription in our sole judgment based upon a suspicion on our part or a notification we receive regardless of proof of infringement."
So they'd terminate purely based on their own 'suspicion'? Seems a little harsh.
edit: A bit of context that I wasn't clear on in this post: Taking down files you are aware of, but before they've been found by a court to be infringing is the only way to maintain safe harbor protection.
Acting on anything short of proof, is acting on suspicion. Now what constitutes proof as far as copyright infringement? I can't think of anything short of a court decision. DMCA takedown notices aren't proof, they're just when the complainant swears they have a good faith belief that the file in question is infringing.
If they're taking that material down to stay legal, as far as the DMCA is concerned, when they become aware of information that makes it apparent the material is infringing they will lose safe harbor protections if they do not take it down.
Typically, this is covered by the "we can do whatever we want"-type clause in other file providers TOS, bayfiles is just limiting their purview to more specific situations.
My point with my previous point was that any harshness was not on the part of bayfiles.
Bummer.