14 DAY TRIAL // The MegaUpload saga is just beginning, but things will only start to get interesting in a few months at the extradition hearings. In the meantime, some people are still waiting to get their data back, providing that they will.
It's an open question, MegaUpload wants to retrieve the data for its users and for its own defense, users want their data, the hosting companies would want to continue to get paid but also to get their money back for the months they've been storing the data on their own expense.
The EFF would want users to get their data back as well. The government though, not so much. As far as it's concerned, it found out all it needed and directed the hosting companies to delete everything, even though all that data is quite clearly evidence.
Users have just gotten an unlikely ally though, granted, one that could turn on them, the MPAA.
It seems that the Motion Picture Association of America is asking the court to ask the hosting companies to retain the data to be used as evidence. MegaUpload made a similar request, it believed the data could exonerate it.
The difference is that the MPAA doesn't need evidence for this case, which is a criminal one handled by the FBI. Rather, it may decide to press a civil lawsuit against MegaUpload and, crucially, against companies or individuals associated with it.
"Independent of the ongoing criminal proceeding, the Studios have civil claims against the operators of Megaupload, and potentially also against those who have knowingly or materially contributed to the infringement occurring through Megaupload," a letter sent by the MPAA to Carpathia reads.
MPAA later recounted and said that it did not intend to go after individual users; rather it's going to look for big time infringers to see whether MegaUpload knew about them and left them alone nonetheless.
At the same time, Carpathia is asking the court to do something about the data, which is costing it thousands of dollars out of its own pockets each day.