After Megaupload Bust, Putlocker and RapidShare Pick Up Slack
The Feds shut down Megaupload two months ago, but browser-based filesharing hasn't slowed down. It has just moved to other websites. Before the takedown, Megaupload was the most popular web-based filesharing service — by far.
Context & Ripple Effects
The January aftermath reporting on the warez scene already showed disruption rippling through pirate communities after federal authorities shut down Megaupload; two months on, Wired's data confirms the displacement pattern at the mainstream layer of web-based filesharing. Putlocker and RapidShare have absorbed activity that previously ran through what was by far the most popular browser-based locker.
Why it matters: this is an early read on whether a single high-profile takedown shrinks total infringing traffic or merely reroutes it. The confirmed gains at Putlocker and RapidShare point squarely at rerouting — the demand was never destroyed, it changed addresses.
First-order effects
- Putlocker and RapidShare inherit Megaupload's displaced user base and upload volume overnight, making them the de facto leading destinations for browser-based filesharing.
- Federal enforcers get a live test of deterrence theory: removing the top service did not suppress demand, so each remaining cyberlocker becomes the next candidate target.
Second-order effects
- Surviving lockers face a choice between absorbing growth and throttling it — the more visibly they scale into Megaupload's shoes, the more enforcement attention and payment/hosting partner risk they attract.
- Advertisers and payment processors serving cyberlockers reassess exposure, since concentration of traffic on fewer sites concentrates their own legal risk alongside it.
Third-order effects
- If every takedown simply crowns a new leader, single-site enforcement gives way to structural responses — pressure on intermediaries, court tests of locker legality, and legislative framing — rather than serial raids.
- The cyberlocker market consolidates around a smaller set of incumbents that must either legitimize or operate permanently in enforcement's shadow, reshaping how filesharing services price and present themselves.
The trend: High-profile takedowns are proving to redistribute filesharing traffic across surviving cyberlockers rather than shrink it, pushing enforcement from individual raids toward systemic pressure on the ecosystem.