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Isn't it true that ANY web storage and file-sharing company could be raided and shut-down tomorrow? What's different between Megaupload and Dropbox or any of t

Isn't it true that ANY web storage and file-sharing company could be raided and shut-down tomorrow? What's different between Megaupload and Dropbox or any of the others? If the Feds (and the Motion Picture industry) decide that Dropbox is hosting pirated works they could suffer the same fate, no? I am not focusing on Dropbox here. They are just a place holder for any storage/sharing service you'd care to name. I use Dropbox almost exclusively and love it. The point here is that, unless I am wrong, your data isn't safe anywhere outside your own four walls. So, if data loss is your concern, be sure to back it up locally. If you do things right it should not matter if Mega (or any other service) implodes overnight. Set yourself up to not loose anything if that were to happen. If you do that, then you can use any service and sleep well knowing that such a failure (or confiscation by the Feds) is of minimal or no consequence to you.

rorrr 14y ago
> Isn't it true that ANY web storage and file-sharing company could be raided and shut-down tomorrow? I'd say at its present state, MEGA servers are one of the least likely to be raided, considering the clusterfuck with the last raid. > if data loss is your concern, be sure to back it up locally That's a horrible advice. A company that does data storage professionally is much less likely to lose your data. If you have a house fire or a major flood, your computer and your backups will be gone. Diversification is the key to data safety. Back up both locally and online.
- robomartin 14y ago
  That is far from horrible advice. And you are taking "locally" way too literally. You get to define what "locally" means. It definitely means "not trusting a third party with your important data". In my case it means that I keep three full backups of everything at three different locations and with various incremental and full-backup schedules. Old data that doesn't see a lot of activity is archived and even burned to DVD and stored in a fire-proof safe. I know that some of it is a bit extreme, but I actually take my work product very seriously and most of it represents "cubic hours" of work. I take the position that my business data is my responsibility and I store it "locally" with enough redundancy that it would take a pretty major event for a significant chunk to be lost. That does NOT mean that I don't use remote storage/backup services. It DOES mean that I operate as if they could be reduced to dust tomorrow. Which, in turn, means that I have all of the convenience some of these services offer while not having to worry too much about issues at the backup provider ruining my life.
  - rorrr 14y ago
    > In my case it means that I keep three full backups of everything at three different locations I think it's you who doesn't understand the meaning of "locally".
    - robomartin 14y ago
      OK. Let's call it "personally" then.
mylittlepony 14y ago
At least, your data won't be visible to Mega or the Feds. And if they get raided, the Feds won't have shit against Mega or you. About the backup part, they have servers in different countries, so it's safer. Personally, I wouldn't rely on any service alone, I always have an extra copy somewhere else. I do the same with my emails for example. If tomorrow my email provider shuts me down, I will lose at most ~12 hours of emails. All my other emails are in my PC and in Dropbox (encrypted, obviously). Next, I sign up to a different email provider, change my domain DNS, and keep receiving emails normally like if nothing happened.
GHFigs 14y ago
Isn't it true that ANY web storage and file-sharing company could be raided and shut-down tomorrow? I think the most accurate thing you could say is that the odds vary considerably based on the intentions and actions of the operators with respect to criminal activity, and the extent to which they can be inferred by reputation. Framed as practical advice, I'd say: Your data is probably much safer with services that don't have a reputation for being used mostly for piracy.
norswap 14y ago
In Mega's case specifically, they will mirror your data in different data centers spread accross the globe (but not in America).
shurcooL 14y ago
The difference is, if Dropbox is down tomorrow, I still have all my data backed up on my computer(s).
- icebraining 14y ago
  You can have that with any provider: just don't delete the data after you've uploaded it.
  - shurcooL 14y ago
    Not true, you're forgetting about automatic synchronization. With Dropbox, I only have to worry about maintaining one place, the Dropbox. It syncs across all my devices. Without that, I'd have to sync files manually whenever I delete/rename/change them... I hope you see that it's not the same.
    - icebraining 14y ago
      I never claimed the services are equivalent, just that you don't need Dropbox to have a local backup of the files.
rsync 14y ago
Your data is safe with rsync.net, or any other provider that does not build a business model around "sharing" or "social" or web links or any other bullshit like that. It's not file storage that presents the political risk - it's letting idiot kids store things publicly, for free, because you are pursuing some "make it up on volume" business model that we all knew was broken 13 years ago. /rant
- Dylan16807 14y ago
  Is your rant intentionally implying that megaupload's business model bleeds money? Because they did just fine on that front.
- visarga 14y ago
  They probably just want to serve embedded video in a way that they can't be accused of contribution to copyright infringement. What they added is a layer of encryption. But can they do video playback on an encrypted stream? What in-browser video player works with encryption keys?
rlx0x 14y ago
They answer your question (from the TOS): "You must maintain copies of all data stored by you on our service. We do not make any guarantees that there will be no loss of data or the services will be bug free. You are completely responsible to remove all data prior to termination of services." Reading their TOS makes me not want to use the service (but thats true to any other "cloud storage" provider aswell).

rorrr 14y ago

> Isn't it true that ANY web storage and file-sharing company could be raided and shut-down tomorrow? I'd say at its present state, MEGA servers are one of the least likely to be raided, considering the clusterfuck with the last raid. > if data loss is your concern, be sure to back it up locally That's a horrible advice. A company that does data storage professionally is much less likely to lose your data. If you have a house fire or a major flood, your computer and your backups will be gone. Diversification is the key to data safety. Back up both locally and online.

robomartin 14y ago
That is far from horrible advice. And you are taking "locally" way too literally. You get to define what "locally" means. It definitely means "not trusting a third party with your important data". In my case it means that I keep three full backups of everything at three different locations and with various incremental and full-backup schedules. Old data that doesn't see a lot of activity is archived and even burned to DVD and stored in a fire-proof safe. I know that some of it is a bit extreme, but I actually take my work product very seriously and most of it represents "cubic hours" of work. I take the position that my business data is my responsibility and I store it "locally" with enough redundancy that it would take a pretty major event for a significant chunk to be lost. That does NOT mean that I don't use remote storage/backup services. It DOES mean that I operate as if they could be reduced to dust tomorrow. Which, in turn, means that I have all of the convenience some of these services offer while not having to worry too much about issues at the backup provider ruining my life.
- rorrr 14y ago
  > In my case it means that I keep three full backups of everything at three different locations I think it's you who doesn't understand the meaning of "locally".
  - robomartin 14y ago
    OK. Let's call it "personally" then.

mylittlepony 14y ago

At least, your data won't be visible to Mega or the Feds. And if they get raided, the Feds won't have shit against Mega or you. About the backup part, they have servers in different countries, so it's safer. Personally, I wouldn't rely on any service alone, I always have an extra copy somewhere else. I do the same with my emails for example. If tomorrow my email provider shuts me down, I will lose at most ~12 hours of emails. All my other emails are in my PC and in Dropbox (encrypted, obviously). Next, I sign up to a different email provider, change my domain DNS, and keep receiving emails normally like if nothing happened.

GHFigs 14y ago

Isn't it true that ANY web storage and file-sharing company could be raided and shut-down tomorrow? I think the most accurate thing you could say is that the odds vary considerably based on the intentions and actions of the operators with respect to criminal activity, and the extent to which they can be inferred by reputation. Framed as practical advice, I'd say: Your data is probably much safer with services that don't have a reputation for being used mostly for piracy.

norswap 14y ago

In Mega's case specifically, they will mirror your data in different data centers spread accross the globe (but not in America).

shurcooL 14y ago

The difference is, if Dropbox is down tomorrow, I still have all my data backed up on my computer(s).

icebraining 14y ago
You can have that with any provider: just don't delete the data after you've uploaded it.
- shurcooL 14y ago
  Not true, you're forgetting about automatic synchronization. With Dropbox, I only have to worry about maintaining one place, the Dropbox. It syncs across all my devices. Without that, I'd have to sync files manually whenever I delete/rename/change them... I hope you see that it's not the same.
  - icebraining 14y ago
    I never claimed the services are equivalent, just that you don't need Dropbox to have a local backup of the files.

rsync 14y ago

Your data is safe with rsync.net, or any other provider that does not build a business model around "sharing" or "social" or web links or any other bullshit like that. It's not file storage that presents the political risk - it's letting idiot kids store things publicly, for free, because you are pursuing some "make it up on volume" business model that we all knew was broken 13 years ago. /rant

Dylan16807 14y ago
Is your rant intentionally implying that megaupload's business model bleeds money? Because they did just fine on that front.
visarga 14y ago
They probably just want to serve embedded video in a way that they can't be accused of contribution to copyright infringement. What they added is a layer of encryption. But can they do video playback on an encrypted stream? What in-browser video player works with encryption keys?

rlx0x 14y ago

They answer your question (from the TOS): "You must maintain copies of all data stored by you on our service. We do not make any guarantees that there will be no loss of data or the services will be bug free. You are completely responsible to remove all data prior to termination of services." Reading their TOS makes me not want to use the service (but thats true to any other "cloud storage" provider aswell).