Thank you! Your submission has been received. We will get in touch with you soon.
Back to site
Cyberlockers fuel a hidden piracy economy, rewarding uploaders with ads, affiliates, and subscriptions - while dodging enforcement through legal loopholes.
Cyberlockers (like Filemoon, Doodstream, or Powvideo) and link shorteners (e.g., ouo.io) are platforms that host files and videos, allowing for both downloads and online streaming. These services are hosted on ISPs (Internet Service Providers), some of which are compliant (they follow regulations like the DMCA), and others non-compliant, often located in countries with looser legal frameworks, resulting in fewer legal consequences.
The main source of income for uploaders is intrusive advertising. Cyberlockers insert ads before (via videos or clicks), during, or after video playback, sharing part of the revenue with users based on the number of views. The rates vary depending on geographic tier and video length.
For example, on Powvideo, a 10–40 minute video can earn up to $35 per 10,000 views if the traffic comes from Tier 1 countries (US, UK, Australia). In Tier 4 (countries with lower advertising value), the same number of views earns about $8.
Common Tier Classification:
In addition to advertising, many cyberlockers offer affiliate programs, where users earn commissions for recruiting other uploaders. There are also premium subscriptions, allowing users and viewers to pay for unlimited downloads, faster download speeds, or ad-free experiences—generating shared revenue.
According to TorrentFreak (2023), some cyberlockers earn five-figure monthly revenues thanks to these combined strategies.
Shorteners like ouo.io work similarly: users upload a link, and every time someone clicks it (and goes through pop-up ads), they earn money.
For instance, traffic from Australia pays about $5 per 1,000 visits, while in Spain it’s around $2.5. These services are typically less compliant with laws like the DMCA, making it easier to host pirated content without taking it down when reported.
In many cases, a chain of shorteners is created—sometimes with captchas—that eventually lead to fake content, generating revenue across multiple shortener platforms without even delivering the illegal content itself.
While this type of service isn’t illegal—since they simply shorten the final URL and monetize the redirection—they shouldn’t enable access to illegal content like copyrighted materials or child pornography.
Although 70–75% of cyberlockers remove content after receiving a valid DMCA notice (TorrentFreak, 2023), many operate under ISPs located in piracy-tolerant countries.
They also use services like Cloudflare to obscure the real location of their servers, making tracking more difficult. In extreme cases—when neither the ISP nor the cyberlocker cooperates—affected companies must pursue legal action, a slow and expensive process using evidence provided by anti-piracy firms.
This monetization model—based on aggressive advertising, affiliates, and subscriptions—fuels the informal piracy economy.
For uploaders, it’s a way to earn passive income, albeit with legal risks. For platforms, it’s a lucrative business: cyberlockers are estimated to generate $100 million annually in advertising revenue (Statista, 2022).
However, their reliance on ambiguous policies and anonymity tools keeps them in a constant game of cat and mouse with authorities.
