RapidShare closes service on March 31

The popular file locker service RapidShare has announced that it will stop its storage service on March 31. After that date, user data will be deleted, so the service recommends that users remove it from the site.

The service has announced its impending end on its own site: “RapidShare will stop actively offering the service on March 31, 2015.” The Standards Plus and Premium subscriptions will continue to be purchased until February 28. After March 31, accounts will no longer be accessible and the data will be deleted.

It is not known why the Swiss company behind RapidShare will stop. The Swiss trade register shows that the service is not in suspension of payment, writes the Swiss newspaper Handelszeitung.

With the closing, the curtain falls on the service that has long been extremely popular for illegally distributing copyrighted material such as music, films and software. In the past, the service rewarded uploaders for adding popular content. The success made the German founder Christian Schmid a multimillionaire but also led to many expensive lawsuits that the company had to bring against the entertainment industry.

After the agency took measures to combat piracy, RapidShare fell out of favor. In 2013, three quarters of the staff had to leave because of the poor results.