[unboggling]

I've been looking into file hosting and syncing services such as Dropbox, SugarSync, and ZumoDrive. I thought a thread on this subject might be useful for people wanting to backup or sync eBooks. Not that I have many answers at this point, but maybe some of you do.

ZumoDrive seemed great at first because it can stream (working through iTunes) directly to iDevices, but I had problems setting ZD up, probably due to a conflict with Dropbox or SugarSync, or maybe my nonstandard file sharing and file permissions. So I haven't experimented with it yet.

These services give you typically 1 or 2 GB of free space hoping you'll need and buy more. To give an idea of varying rates: for $99/year you get 20 GB from MobileMe, 50 GB from Dropbox, and 60 GB from SugarSync.

If my files are going to be on somebody else's file-hosting servers, I basically give up the right to privacy. Did you know that the system admins of these cloud file-hosting services can decrypt and access your files? Did you know that some including Dropbox make agreements with agencies that enforce copyright protection, and may delete de-DRMed media content legally at any time, possibly informing the authorities? That's what some content on wikipedia said or implied. I de-DRM solely for the purpose of conversions so the media items I buy (erh, lease) can be available to my multiple devices for my sole personal use, and don't consider myself morally or legally criminal for doing that. (If the publishers and vendors think that's criminal then there's something seriously broken and flawed in the media publishing/distribution industries, imho. But let's not rant about that here.) If these file-hosting services can delete my content at will, why do I want to use them in the first place?

Well, it's useful to sync documents and media across devices and to have off-site backup. That's why.

Any further info, comments, discussion?