Last updated at 12:44, Tuesday, 05 May 2009

A BARROW web developer is winning praise from internet users around the world for a new service which takes the pain out of sending photographs and other files to friends and colleagues online.

WEB WIZARD: Freelance web developer Elliot Haughin, pictured at his home at Bankfield Gardens on Walney, who owns file sharing site FilePanda.com LINDSEY DICKINGS REF: 0483017

Elliot Haughin’s website FilePanda.com is a free and very easy way to transfer files between friends and businesses and is an ideal solution for anyone who has had problems trying to send pictures by email.

There is no registration for the site, just go to www.filepanda.com where you can just choose your file and click the upload button without having to register or do anything geeky. Filepanda then gives you a web address link for people to download your pictures or content.

Mr Haughin told the Evening Mail: “Whilst it’s not a complex service, it does exactly what it’s built for, and is now used worldwide by thousands of people.

“There were already a few services that did a similar thing to this, but most of them were quite restrictive. The files would only be accessible for a certain amount of time, or could only be downloaded a certain amount of times. I thought that this defeated the object of the service. If you share a file with someone, you want them to be able to come back at a later date and get it again.”

FilePanda is monitored for illegally shared files which are then removed, but Mr Haughin believes a review of the restrictions surrounding copyrighted material is needed. Recent copyright controversies include the Pirate Bay court case and thousands of music videos being blocked on Youtube in the UK.

He said: “The internet is currently in a fine balance between net-neutrality and enforcing the legal rights of copyright owners.

“If companies stepped up to provide better legal ways to download TV, films, and music, illegal filesharing would begin to decline, making way for easier, legal content delivery.

“The internet was founded on the basis of complete freedom of use. To strictly regulate an abstract decentralized communication method such as the internet would be like restricting the use of the telephone networks to ‘acceptable’ content.”

Mr Haughin moved back to Barrow after working in London and now combines a career as a freelance web developer with a better quality of life.

He said: “I’ve now moved back to Cumbria after 18 months in London. I’ve always loved the work I do, but missed living in this beautiful location, so now I have the best of both worlds.

“I can build new features into FilePanda whilst watching the tide come in out of my window. I can set up a server in New York, and then go for a walk in Grizedale. There really isn’t anything quite like it.”

First published at 11:39, Monday, 04 May 2009
Published by http://www.nwemail.co.uk