Feds: Megaupload files may be deleted this week

[alp227]

Federal prosecutors who accuse file-sharing site Megaupload of being a hotbed of digital piracy say the site's customer files, presumably including perfectly legal ones, may be deleted starting Thursday.

"It is our understanding that the hosting companies may begin deleting the contents of the servers beginning as early as February 2, 2012," U.S. Attorney Neil H. MacBride said in a letter filed in federal court.

The letter, submitted Friday in the Eastern District of Virginia, says that government investigators have finished executing search warrants at centers where Megaupload and MegaVideo files are stored.

MacBride wrote that the government copied some data, but didn't remove any of it. Now that the search has been finished, the government no longer has access to the servers, he said.

full: http://www.cnn.com/2012/01/30/tech/web/megaupload-data-deleted/index.html

[TreasonousBastard]

1. Woo-hoo! So much for the Cloud!

[joshcryer]

2. In some ways this can be viewed as a good thing, as it means that the Feds...

...will not be checking the validity of every single account on there, thus people who did illegitimately upload files can breath easier, since they are apparently not the targets of the investigation. It seems they went after the evidence they needed and are done with it.

[aikanae]

3. Why isn't anyone questioning this?

The more I read into the MegaUpload case, the slimier it gets - guilty until proven innocent. The charges were trumped up, this destroys new (competitive) technology, they were in a battle with UMG (RIAA) ... lots of people had legitimate files. Now we'll never know the percentages. Is it really fair to destroy something (an entire industry) to take care of a few?