This popularity also put the site in the crosshairs of the Hollywood studios, who branded it a “rogue cyberlocker” last year. Shocked by this characterization, MediaFire emphasized that it has always cooperated with rightsholders by taking down infringing content.

At the same time the company worked hard behind the scenes to expand its service into more than just a plain old file-sharing platform. Today MediaFire is ready to reveal the fruits of this effort to the world, with the release of its desktop syncing application and an overhaul of its website.

The sync software allows Mac and Windows users to back up the files stored in their MediaFire account directly to their computers. This means that with up to 50 gigabytes of free storage, MediaFire now is a direct competitor of other cloud hosting services such as Dropbox and Google Drive.

One of the advantages of the sync application is that it allows users to share files directly from their hard drive. For example, people can put audio and video files in their MediaFire folder and get a link to share these with a friend, a group of friends, or the public at large.

To make sharing more convenient, MediaFire has also overhauled its web interface. The service now supports automatic media file transcoding and streaming support guarantees that over 200 file formats can be viewed directly from a web browser.

Besides streaming, users can download a copy of the files to their computers as well, as this example shows.

While the above are already major changes, it is just the beginning for the ambitious file-sharing service. The ultimate goal of MediaFire is to make sharing and discovering content easy and convenient across a variety of platforms through the new API.

Brent Bucci, MediaFire’s Vice President of Brands and Developer Relations, informs TorrentFreak that MediaFire’s API will open doors to video playback on other platforms, including Xbox, Playstation and Smart TV.

After the launch of the desktop sync application MediaFire plans to add sync support for mobile devices early next year. A few months later the service will also add search capability, which will make it easier for the public to find files that others share, much like YouTube.

The timing of MediaFire’s new sync tools announcement is interesting as it comes days before Kim Dotcom’s Mega is expected to release similar applications. However, according to MediaFire this is a mere coincidence.

“We haven’t seen ourselves a competitor to Mega,” Bucci says, explaining that MediaFire has chosen to focus on the social sharing aspect rather than encryption.

“Encryption is very hard to do, and at the end of the day really good security, transparent policies and not pissing off the powers that be, are all essential parts to running a cloud service that can be trusted,” Bucci says

Dropbox, one of the most used file-syncing tools, is not a competitor MediaFire worries about either, as storage is much more expensive there. “If people want two gigabytes of storage, perhaps Dropbox is right for them,” Bucci says.

MediaFire users can store a maximum of 50 gigabytes with a free account (starting with 10 GB), and paid subscriptions start at $4.99 a month for 100 gigabytes.

Finally, the topic of online piracy can’t be ignored. When MediaFire adds discovery tools it may also become easier to find infringing content being shared on the service, something which has the potential to raise eyebrows in the entertainment industry.

“Of course, dealing with piracy and fair-use is a balancing act. We’ve developed some pretty innovative tools in order to identify pirated content, while at the same time, we are committed to protecting our users’ data and media,” Bucci says.

However, instead of focusing on the negative MediaFire prefers to highlight the advantages of sharing. Many musicians and even major labels and movie studios are beginning to realize that sharing can also have benefits, and this is exactly what MediaFire wants to excel at.

“The industry is changing, and entertainment companies and artists are beginning to see clear advantages when it comes to providing free content to their fans. Remixes, mash-ups, and social promotions are creating a new generation of artists that understand their fans,” Bucci concludes.

Those interested in the new MediaFire and its fresh streaming support and sync tools can check it out here.

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.

At the time one-click download sites were beating BitTorrent sites by a landslide. However, the cyberlocker business changed dramatically following the Megaupload shutdown last year and now the tables have turned.

The Pirate Bay, ranked sixth last time, has become the most-used file-sharing site. While the infamous BitTorrent site certainly gained some new visitors in recent months, it mostly owes its number one spot to the traffic decline of several major cyberlockers.

The most likely explanation for the traffic drop at these sites is the Megaupload shutdown. As covered extensively in the past, many cyberlockers removed their affiliate plans, disabled public sharing or implemented other measures to keep pirates at bay.

The result is a major shift in traffic patterns, with both winners and losers. Quite a few familiar names have fallen from the list, including RapidShare, FileServe and Hotfile. Others such as Uploaded and Putlocker picked up new visitors.

The overall pattern seems to be that BitTorrent sites have regained some of the “market share” they lost earlier. Half of all sites in the file-sharing top 10 are BitTorrent related, compared to only two in 2011.

With six newcomers in the list, it’s clear that the file-sharing ecosystem has been shaken up quite a bit.

Below is the full top 10 of the most-visited general purpose file-sharing sites that are available in English. We used several traffic comparison and analytic tools to compile this list, including Compete, Quantcast and Alexa. The alexa rank is shown in the table below, as well as the # in the 2011 list.

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.

Some concluded that other services were guilty by association, and Hollywood went as far as naming several other cyberlockers that should be shutdown next, including Mediafire.

U.S. based Mediafire was shocked by this characterization and emphasized that it has always cooperated with rights holders. On top of that the company has also implemented several measures to ensure that its users play by the rules.

A good example of this policy is Mediafire’s proactive monitoring of unauthorized sharing. With help from Audible Magic‘s digital fingerprinting technology Mediafire checks user’s compliance with the site’s Terms of Service by identifying copyrighted audio and video files.

If Mediafire notices that copyrighted files are being shared in public, the links are disabled.

“In the interest of protecting our users, as well as MediaFire, we use AudibleMagic to prevent the unauthorized sharing of copyrighted audio and video. MediaFire is committed to protecting our users, and this system allows us to do that,” MediaFire co-founder Tom Langridge tells TorrentFreak.

Since users are allowed to backup and store copyrighted material on Mediafire for their own use, the files themselves remain accessible to the user.

“We do not remove any files from anyone’s accounts, but there is a difference between accessing your own files and sharing them with a 3rd party. We do not allow sharing of copyrighted materials. When a user attempts to perform that action, we show an error message,” Langridge adds.

Mediafire doesn’t stop at simply removing links though. When the company noticed that the standard “permission denied” error message was confusing users, it added “buy now” links to retailers where the music or video files can be bought legally.

“That error has historically been a text message which was confusing to users. We replaced it with a clear message that provides a path for the user to continue. We do that as a convenience to the user,” Langridge tells TorrentFreak.

The process is entirely transparent and users whose files are flagged get a notice explaining what’s going on, Mediafire tells us. No further action is taken against the users, who can still access the files through their private Mediafire account.

The file-hoster further stresses that the feature, which was first implemented a few months ago, effects a very small portion of its userbase. Like any other cloud backup service there are some people who share copyrighted files, but there are also millions who use it for legitimate purposes.

“MediaFire is used every day by millions of people to legitimately store, access, backup, collaborate and share their files, and we are committed to providing these individuals with the most reliable and affordable online storage service on the market,” Langridge says.

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.

Founded in 2007, the Polish-operated site is the largest meta-search engine for content hosted on cyberlockers such as Hotfile, 4Shared and Mediafire. FilesTube refers a significant amount of traffic to these sites, but not all of them are very happy about it.

In fact, Mediafire don’t want to be indexed at all, took action to block all incoming traffic from FilesTube last month.

“As a private service MediaFire was never designed to be indexed which is why we don’t have an index,” Mediafire co-founder Tom Langridge explains to TorrentFreak.

“Our meta tags for file access are set to not-indexable and services like Google, Bing and other search engines honor this. FilesTube was not honoring this and thus we were forced to block them.”

While the decision makes sense from Mediafire’s point of view, it would be naive not to relate the recent change to the increased debate about the legality of cyberlockers’ business models. After the Megaupload raids and arrests Mediafire and other file-hosting services have been publicly scrutinized by Hollywood.

Mediafire was among the five cyberlockers labeled as rogue sites by the movie studios recently. Mediafire was quick to refute the allegations and emphasize that they run a perfectly legitimate business.

This week the debate continues when RapidShare published a set of guidelines cyberlockers should follow to deter mass-copyright infringement.

While we assume Mediafire’s recent change is in part aimed at deterring infringement, it is no silver bullet.

The FilesTube block stops users from clicking through to Mediafire, but it doesn’t prevent links being indexed, as FilesTube gathers this information from third-party sources. This means that FilesTube users can still find content on MediaFire, but instead of clicking on a direct link they have to manually paste the URL in their browsers.

FilesTube points out this workaround on their Facebook page.

Update: The article was updated to make clear that Mediafire made these changes last month.

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.

The exec identified Fileserve, MediaFire, Wupload, Putlocker and Depositfiles as targets that might be referred to the US Government next, describing these businesses as “rogue sites.” The announcement clearly came as quite a shock to these major players. After Putlocker refuted the claims earlier, today MediaFire responds to the allegations.

“It was both shocking and disappointing that Mr. Perry referenced us as a ‘rogue’ website,” MediaFire co-founder Tom Langridge told TorrentFreak.

“It’s my opinion that the inclusion of MediaFire was most likely the result of misinformation. We have already received very positive responses from people supporting us, both in and outside of the copyright industry, and we hope that the public and press will continue to challenge Mr. Perry’s assertions.”

Langridge goes on to explain that MediaFire is a storage and backup service that doesn’t promote or encourage copyright infringements in any way. The site has never paid users to upload content, and it doesn’t have download limitations to encourage people to convert to paid subscriptions either.

But mistake or not, being featured on a Hollywood hit-list these days is bad PR, and thus far the movie studio stands by its assessment. It even went as far as to include MediaFire on a poster of rogue cyberlockers.

In their response, MediaFire stays classy. The company doesn’t see any point in throwing mud back at Hollywood and instead explains that they operate a perfectly transparent US company. A business that has proven to be useful to many legitimate customers.

“MediaFire is a US based company with a highly transparent business model and management team. MediaFire was founded by a group of reputable entrepreneurs with diverse backgrounds who have a history of building innovative and valuable websites and technologies,” Langridge told us.

“Over the past several years, we have been focused on releasing numerous updates to MediaFire’s professional and business services. Just in the last month, we launched our document viewing system (in beta) and rebuilt our image system – not the kind of features that incentivize illegal activity.”

Of course MediaFire, like any other file-hosting service, can’t prevent copyrighted material from ending up on its website occasionally. However, the company has all the legally required tools in place for copyright holders to address these violations.

“MediaFire continues to cooperate fully with the MPAA, RIAA, and various other organizations who work to identify and prohibit the distribution of copyrighted content. We have a variety of advanced automated systems designed to detect violations of our Terms of Service and automatically warn and terminate users.”

“In fact, these systems have received rave reviews from organizations monitoring copyrighted content,” Langridge.

Unfortunately, this is no guarantee for escaping legal action. Both Hotfile and Megaupload were praised for their takedown policies on several occasions as well, but both later ended up in court.

MediaFire’s Langridge nonetheless believes that Hollywood’s allegations are “most likely an inadvertent result of misinformation.” While this sounds plausible after reading the above, we doubt that Paramount Pictures will retract their statements, let alone offer an apology.

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.

It’s clear that site owners are concerned that their business might become a target, and if it’s up to the major movie studios this fear is justified. “We continue to make criminal referrals,” Paramount Pictures’ Alfred Perry said during the On Copyright conference in New York yesterday.

CNET reports that the Paramount Pictures produced a list of five “rogue” file-hosters, presented in a fancy graphic where Megaupload is crossed out. The prime targets on this shutdown list are Fileserve, MediaFire, Wupload, Putlocker and Depositfiles.

The movie studio claims that these “rogue” cyberlockers receive 41 billion page views a year, which translates to five views for every person on the planet.

In recent months the MPAA has criticized the business models of these and other cyberlockers on many occasions.

Last November, for example, we got our hands on an MPAA fact sheet titled“It’s All About the Money: The ‘Business’ Model of Rogue Cyberlockers” with an overview of the several affiliate programs some cyberlockers have in place. According to the MPAA these programs motivate users to share copyrighted material, thereby promoting piracy.

“Rogue cyberlockers aren’t just distribution hubs for stolen movies and TV shows – both the users who upload content and the operators who run the sites can earn money from doing so. As Internet video traffic grows, the threat from rogue cyberlockers that profit from stolen content is rising rapidly,” the MPAA explains in the document.

This fact sheet will most likely be forwarded to the Department of Justice with every new “rogue” cyberlocker that the MPAA reports.

Whether the Department of Justice will act on new referrals from the movie studios has yet to be seen. For now they have their hands full on Megaupload, whose founder told TorrentFreak that his defense teams is working on a killer motion in response to the “nonsense” US indictment.

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.