It’s been not only a timorous time for Megaupload customers, but one of confusion also.
It was widely reported last week that U.S. federal prosecutors had sought to delete the vast amount of data held on Megaupload-owned servers. Then it was understood that because Megaupload’s accounts were frozen, the hosting bill could not be paid and that the hosting companies would wipe the data. The timeline was revised down to “at least two weeks” earlier on Sunday.
A new statement from one of Megaupload’s hosting service, Carpathia, said that in regards to the “disposition of Megaupload servers and Megaupload customer data”, it would hold off any action indefinitely until a suitable resolution is found.
In a statement received from Brian Winter, chief marketing officer at Carpathia, one of Megaupload’s hosting providers:
“Carpathia Hosting has no immediate plans to reprovision some or all of the Megaupload servers. This means that there is no imminent data loss for Megaupload customers. If this situation changes, Carpathia will post a notice at least 7 days in advance of reprovisioning any Megaupload servers at Carpathia.com and MegaRetrieval.com.“
The data remains in possession of the Carpathia. It is understood that U.S. authorities copied some of the data, but continue to work in a bid to gain physical access to the data.
Carpathia this week struck a working relationship with the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) as part of efforts to seek the recovery of data for Megaupload users. Users with data on Carpathia servers — provided that the user owns the copyright — should head to MegaRetrieval.com as their best option.
What is unclear, however, is how Carpathia can in fact help. It said in a previous statement that it: “does not have, and has never had, access to the content on MegaUpload servers and has no mechanism for returning any content residing on such servers to MegaUpload’s customers.”
I’ve reached out for additional comment in a bid to clarify a few points.
Image source: Megaupload/FBI.
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