Kathy Moore

MediaMax is dead, The Linkup is dead, Streamload is dead (Download Squad)

Aug 3rd 2008 9:33AM Streamload became MediaMax became the LinkUp; but Streamload also powered something called KeepVault, does anyone know the status of THAT "service"? And behind all of these was something called Nirvanix. Are there OTHERS out there that we don't yet know of? Is anybody taking these people to COURT? How about the FEDERAL Attorney General?

I signed up for Streamload over two years ago; it never worked properly; the in-site search frequently could not locate my files, even if they were there; I had to laboriously search for important files manually.

After serious problems with Streamload, news came of the change to Mediamax. I wrote and said, I like the Streamload concept, I like thumbnails, why don't you just FIX it instead of throwing it out to do something else? I CHOSE this system over others because that's what I WANTED, and now you're CHANGING it? And I have no say? And will you lose or destroy my files in the migration? They replied that they HAD to change the system, and that my files were perfectly safe. Famous last words. Not at all.

After the big file migration to Mediamax, upwards of 70% of the file url's in my Mediamax account, transferred from Streamload, were connected to NOTHING. Massive amounts of my irreplaceable "safe and secure" files were dead and gone. So bad was THIS new system that the Mediamax team even BUILT INTO IT a very special "error message" which said "Oops! We've had a slight hiccup!", and this message appeared EVERY time a file url was clicked but the file was missing.

Mediamax refused to account for the files that were gone. I had about 20 gigs of files in there, so I began to keep track of destroyed files by print-screening the open page of url's in Mediamax, then red-circling those that were damaged or missing due to "Hiccups". To do this for the whole 20 gigs would have been a hopeless job, not to say a full-time job.

I therefore did this for just a mere fraction of my account. I would do it whenever I had to login to search for something. In this way, I verified that Mediamax: (1) destroyed ALL my personal and professional legal (study) research files, representing months of sitting in the law library taking notes -- that's months of actual academic work in the GARBAGE; I had in fact signed up for Mediamax to replace a RUNBOX.com combination e-mail/storage account that I had PAID for -- another scammer company which marketed their unique email account as HAVING a separate section for file storage, and who then LOST all my irreplaceable files. ALL. RUNBOX was really clever; they marketed themselves to lawyers and law students because of the file storage, and THEN they had no backups on the storage and lost it all. I would literally sit in the law library with RUNBOX open, and then later with Streamload open, and download my law periodicals, and case law and then upload to Runbox, and then later to Streamload, and then to Mediamax. ALL GONE! Two years of work in the toilet.

(2) Mediamax destroyed ALL my personal legal files that were stored regarding a labour suit worth over $50,000.00 and likely much more, and those files included scanned evidentiary documents, draft legal proceedings, correspondence with all parties concerned including government;

(3) Mediamax destroyed all my intellectual property (I'm a writer) including newly drafted manuscripts with graphics that were underway [non-fiction] -- so, all my work and new research was thrown in the GARBAGE inside Mediamax;

(4) Streamload had also offered the possibility to back up web sites. The concept was really neat: you feed in a url and Streamload would reach out and copy the web site and store it for you. I build web sites, I had no computer of my own; I backed everything up in Streamload: GONE. All my web sites, including a site I worked on for 10 months, not yet ready for publication, GONE; and the originals LOST because of changes to Geocity.

(5) Mediamax destroyed countless scans that I had paid for at $1 a scan, plus computer rental time (I didn't have my own PC or laptop then, so Mediamax was that much more important) -- they killed SCANS for:

(a) documents regarding my employment on different contracts: i.e., scans of my work time sheets; my pay stubs, my pay cheques, my work notes from my shifts;

(b) all of my digital and digitally converted photographs -- I had PAID a photo lab to TRANSFER hundreds of photos from old FILM to CD and then uploaded them to Streamload-Mediamax for "safe and secure" backup. ALL GONE! And the original CDs are now missing, someone stole the envelope of photos and NEGATIVES off the bed in my room in a student housing co-op; and the CD's ultimately also disappeared, god knows where, so here I am, grateful to Streamload-Mediamax for having NOT provided their alleged "safe, secure, RELIABLE" backup.

(c) among the losses, and I'm sure that probably hundreds of thousands of Streamload-Mediamax victims are in the same boat: every last picture of the family CAT that we had for nine years, GONE. All family photos, GONE. All vacations, all pictures of the house, travels, GONE.

(d) all my scans of books and articles that I wrote in the 1980s and 1990s, at $1 a page, in addition to the complexity of having ordered and paid for photocopies of them at 40c a page from the archives of the National Library in Ottawa -- all those scans GONE inside the giant "Hiccup" that was Medimax;

(e) all my personal legal business regarding insurance, employment insurance, dealings with government departments; copies of important legal proceedings at Federal Court of Canada and related lower tribunals concerning over $45,000 + interest owed to me by the government: GONE.

(f) EVIDENCE in the form of scans converted to PDFs -- being documents of others, sent to me, and useful in Court: GONE.

(g) detailed historical documents painstakingly researched, written, and illustrated with original PHOTOGRAPHS, uploaded in Word and in PDF format, all GONE;

... so much is GONE, that I could go ON and ON...

But suffice it to say that there are 20 GIGS OF "GONE", that was entirely irreplaceable, and destroyed largely because of an incompetent migration from one incompetent system to another (from Streamload to Mediamax) by the conmen and incompetents at Mediamax.

I emailed them from the Streamload days onward about the problems, and they were NEVER EVER able to account to me for ONE single url of ONE single file that was "hiccuped", destroyed and lost. They could not explain why the search could NOT find some files that were there.

Finally, they just stopped answering, and then after a few months of silence, because I had sent them attached print-screens red-circled witih all my dead urls in Mediamax, they sent me an invitation to read their blog.

Of even MORE concern, it became apparent that these guys were collaborating with cyberstalkers who have been following me around since 1997. Mediamax were apparently informing the stalkers of the IP addresses of rental computers around Montreal that I would use to log in from.

They apparently in a specific case that I know of also provided to the stalkers the actual scans of a postal money order that I had uploaded, so that the recipient could act on this fact in advance of being presented with it. I had purchased the money order just before store closing at 9:00 pm; I had then walked to a computer center to rent a termina where I SCANNED both sides of the money order and its receipt and UPLOADED them at 10:30 pm into my Mediamax account. I then went home to bed. I was awakened the next morning by a person at my door, the intended recipient of the money order who had NO IDEA that the money order was intended or coming, and he showed up looking for it; and I know for a fact that he was connected to the gang of cyberstalkers who are following me around. So, how did HE know, OVERNIGHT, about this money order? The post office didn't know who it was intended for, I purchased it blank. I filled it in at the computer center; only the SCANS inside Mediamax disclosed the purpose of the money order, and who it was intended for.

All of which proves that the so-called "safe, secure, reliable " backup in Mediamax was never any such thing, and certainly not private.

These guys are not just storage scammers, they are people who can cause you significant damage if they feel like it.

I think it's very important now, because of their malevolent presence on the Internet, that before you deal with ANY online storage company, before you upload your files, do an in-depth check to find out who they are.

It would be extremely important for the major online and print computer magazines to take these guys on and launch an editorial investigation into their corrupt activities.

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I just found a news link from 2005 that connects Streamload with a Texas company called MEEDIO:

http://freshnews.com/cgibin/jsj_news/viewnews.cgi?action=one&cat=2&article_ID=25268

"Streamload and Meedio Introduce Unlimited Capacity for Your Digital Media" -- "Headquartered in Houston, Texas, Meedio develops innovative software for digital home entertainment and automation systems. Meedio provides a robust middleware platform, a suite of plug-in applications, a customizable user interface, and an extensible media library. Meedio's software is enjoyed by users in 41 countries and is licensed to resellers, OEMs, and ISVs worldwide. Visit Meedio online at www.meedio.com."

I clicked into http://www.meedio.com/ to find a page stating they have sold their "techology" to Yahoo, which unfortunately, they allege, did not also buy their existing "products" -- i.e., the SERVICES that meedio customers were signed up and paying for. Now, that's odd. Yahoo bought technology but didn't care to assume the actual customer base?

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Here's another happy Streamload-Mediamax victim:
http://alchemistpoonam.wordpress.com/2008/06/03/streamloadmediamaxlinkup-cheats-and-offenders-on-web/

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In sheer desperation, I just signed up and started using MEDIAFIRE.com for storage. I have not as yet been able to link Medafire to Streamload, but as Streamload did business in Texas with Meedio... I wonder about the name similarity...