PayPal Acts Against Piracy By Implementing Harsher Regulations For File-Sharing Websites

July 14, 2012 by
Filed under: Announcements & Events, Entertainment Industry, File-Sharing Programs, Networks & Services, Legal P2P News & Issues 

Following the separation from Wikileaks in 2010, PayPal is now setting strict conditions for various file-sharing portals.

A TorrentFreak report informs that PayPal has recently changed its TOS (Terms of Service), making it harder for file-sharing websites to survive.

The popular payment service, which is owned by eBay, is now requiring that “merchants must prohibit users from uploading files involving illegal content and indicate that users involved in such file transfers will be permanently removed from their service,” and that “merchants must provide PayPal with free access to their service, so PayPal’s Acceptable Use Policy department can monitor the content.”

While some locker sites are already concerned with the changes, others – like the Palo Alto-based MediaFire – say that there’s little impact since PayPal changed its TOS.

“This is a complete invasion of privacy on PayPal’s part, as it’s none of their business what files users keep in their account,” Putlocker – a UK-based site – told TorrentFreak.

“We have a solid abuse handling policy already, and we don’t feel a 3rd party company has any business snooping on our users.”

However, although PayPal may be considered as one of the leading online paying services, there are alternatives, such as MoneyBookers or BitCoin.

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