Filelocker Campaign Shutting Down
 

Wow... AdultKing... why announce this? I do have a couple of thoughts... err, I will just post it.

"The Stop File Lockers project began in late June 2012 and has run for 15 months.

In that time we have seen:

*hundreds of file locker and other piracy sites shut down,
*more than a (cumulative) thousand Paypal, Pazya, Moneybookers and other third party peer to peer and seller accounts shut down,
* Around 100 merchant accounts shut down and more than another sixty shut down by third party co-operation,
* Three third party billers lose the ability to accept Paypal.
* Hundreds of file locker resellers on eBay have their listings of file locker vouchers and memberships terminated,
*We have recast the way in which file lockers are viewed by many organisations,

We have also shut down blogs, debrid sites, image hosts, forums and link sharing sites.

Unfortunately at the end of September we finally ran out of funds and the resources just don't exist to keep this effort going any longer. In fact, we now face a deficit in the vicinity of $15,000.

Unless a source of funding is found, all operational aspects of the Stop File Lockers project and Copy Control will cease at midnight on Friday 4th October (AEST). This project has lived only through industry support.

At this time we will stop accepting notices to [email protected], all reporting and detection systems will be taken offline and no further mailed copies of infringements and DMCA notices will be received.

I will post a reminder on Friday morning to all parties sending copies of notices to us that the systems will go offline and from midnight on that day emails to [email protected] will bounce.

I would like to thank every person, company and organisation that has provided support to the project. I would especially like to thank those people who worked and participated behind the scenes in our team room/project management environment, Podio.

To all those people and companies who sent us a steady stream of evidence, I would also like to thank you as without the data and information collected we would not have been able to achieve the results we did."

https://gfy.com/showpost.php?p=19818066&postcount=5754

Guess that Manwin money finally dried up.

Guess everyone realised it's had absolutely no impact on sales. It's like when there are 20 rivers leading to an ocean and you try to block of SOME of ONE of those rivers. The ocean will still be fine.

Thanks for the hard work.

100% correct, if this had any effect at all on helping the industry profit, there would be funding out the ass.

In reality it has only served as a pep rally for people needing something other than themselves as a reason they cannot make any money

There will be lots of party announcements in India today.

I second that :thumbsup

Very sad. Many of the sites pirating our content (in multiple languages) had to close due to not being able to get paid from file lockers that AK crippled. We've had a large spike in sales over the past 10 months, and the only thing that has changed was the closing of pirate sites who were hitting us the most. It's a shame to see him have to shut the doors.

I guess today can be declared an international holiday by pro-piracy and 3rd world losers.

Thanks for the hard work AK.

The analogy makes sense, but isn't completely applicable here, that's probably why you still pay rent. :2 cents:

i must say, i dont understand how can something like this went to 15k minus? anyway, it must be a hard work and much time to waste, so there must be some return, and i think i can bet that there was almost no supporters active ... so, good heart, good idea, respect and have luck with your projects, mr adult king! :)

It would have taken time but the project would have gotten things in check, remember what he did for PayPal? It would have been done for CC processors as well.

There's a lot I'm privy to by what went on behind the lines, also a lot I'm not privy to. Tools that were used to detect non-compliance with DMCA are not free, especially when used on a massive scale on different hosts.

No one knows just how hard he really worked, I could tell how hard AK worked when talking to him over Skype a couple times. It's really shameful he didn't get tenacious support for his tenacious efforts.

I may or may not out some people down the road that quietly stopped supporting this effort as connections were made between wjunction, iq69.com, and the whole kaktuz squad.

If it worked so well, why do you think the MPAA and RIAA were not beating down his door?

this sucks. good luck AK.

There were a lot of things, that you are not privy to, that almost went through but ultimately took to long and fell through with larger entities and funding.

The reason why they were interested? Because he's been more effective than any other entity at executing and shutting down accounts. He was invited into many powerful circles because of his efforts.

Like I said, a lot of stuff happens that isn't ever mentioned on the boards or even hinted at.

You even congratulated AK on his victory of making hotfile.com lose PayPal, the one time you were positive about it.
Even though things are to a close it would be appreciated if we could still show our thanks for emotional support.

Well he didnt said how it's over,how it is still possible to continue providing he get funds.Maybe some sponsors will jump in and donate requied amount.I mean seriously if they can waste money on things like FSC then they can waste money on this as well.

I know AK worked his ass off for this project, and it has helped out a ton of folks. Disappointed to see it end like this, but hopefully they'll be an open window appearing soon.

You had any training as a politician? That's the best avoidance of a question I've seen for some time.

:D

Did anyone think to Solicit any of the banks hosting companies and even visa for Financial assistance?

Rule #1 don't rely on manwin for shit.

Sometimes manwin... Sometimes, manlose
Ds

Try Kickstarter

go AK! :thumbsup

This is terrible news.

Can the operation not be scaled to continue on some level with the funding it does receive?

there're only a few people on this place who deserve industry-wide recognition, and AK is one of those

Indeed there will.

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-vmJiBQhq7P...ppy_Monkey.jpg

The upload monkeys will be dancing in the dung heaps :mad:

Maybe if Adult King wasn't personally such a pompous jerk, more people would have contributed to his fund.

I highly doubt Visa is going to provide financial assistance to anything with its roots related to pornography especially when they usually take the side against pornography and adult content when push comes to shove just like any other company (not related to adult) would.

Exactly...

It's a lost cause. The world changed, the business changed. Those who didn't adapt, just quit and those nostalgic ones, tried to fight reality, but they all finished giving up.

It's Natural Selection applied to Internet Business.

All said.

no it did help sales and it did stop a lot of stuff. The problem is, too many people (like usual) sit back while others contribute and the rest benefit. I myself gave at least my fair share. Then, relying on manwin to fund the entire project is moronic. If anything, manwin was probably hoping for some competition in theft ring to die. Robert did just that, and now they have no more use for him. That's how I see it at least.
ds

Well you cant say AK dident try, and personally Im not suprised. You cant keep running something which does not make some kind of profit, eventually it will run out of money.

The way the pirates just adapt is a joke, You close one down another pops up, They always find a way to steal content no matter what you do.

Watch how quick this ends up on TPB news

One man can only do so much; nice try AK

Why not publish a white paper with AK proving that what he did helped your sales. Should help drum up enough to keep him afloat.

thread will go in graveyard rip

Giving just 3 days notice before closure after so much good work is a little strange.

If he had have given 30 days, or announced a reduced operation for a period of time, it would have given him more chance to find more supporters prepared to give money or time to keep the project alive........ unless of course he has been negotiating with third parties already for some time and feels like it is going nowhere or he needs them to commit quicker.

Whatever the case, AdultKing carried this for a long time to the detriment I am sure of his own business and I can understand that he may just want to get back to his own life and nobody could blame him for that. It must have been a very draining 15 months.

Sad thing is though that unless somebody as strong as AdultKing personality wise takes this over then it will have all been in vain, as any progress achieved will very quickly be lost.

My commitment to the project has never waned, however the harsh reality is that what we did cost money. Resources used included distributed cloud server time for detection and verification systems, legal costs, back end systems, international couriers for paper based evidence, technical services such as programming and scripting of tools, conference call facilities, travel and accommodation for meetings, video conferencing, lease on office space and so on.

Without ongoing financial support it's impossible for any one person to mount an operation as extensive as the one we were running. As it is we ran on the bare necessities to get the job done and not one single participant in the project (other than professional service providers) was paid. All the collaboration was done by volunteers including myself.

We had been in discussions to keep the project funded, however it became clear by September 30 that there was no guarantee of ongoing funding. Given the fact that we ran out of money at the end of September and without a commitment by any sponsor for ongoing funding, the project just has to shut down.

I hope that helps put the reasons for the closure in perspective.