Controversial file-sharing site Rapidshare is to close in March following a long-term dip in its popularity. Rapidshare was once of the most popular file-sharing sites in the world, but the service will close within weeks. The company sacked three-quarters of its staff in 2013.
The service was regularly used to upload copyrighted material, before the company adopted various anti-piracy measures due to pressure. Experts say that the decision to clamp down on piracy led to its demise. The company has warned users that their accounts will be deleted on 31st March.
Rapidshare was once one of the world’s top three file-sharing sites alongside Megavideo.com and Megaupload.com. It’s thought that the three sites generated in excess of 21 billion visits. The decision to introduce anti-piracy measures caused a huge fall in revenues, with experts saying that the site is no longer commercially-viable.
It was one of the few filesharing sites to be victorious in court. In 2012, a German court said that it operated legally in the country, telling the service that it wasn’t obliged to monitor files uploaded by users. However, it was told to monitor sites linking to copyrighted files on its service and make them inaccessible. Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom recently said he was “broke” after various legal battles.
