Megaupload users get two-week extension, dedicated Megaretrieval site to recover data
A masked hacker, part of the Anonymous group, hacks the French presidential Elysee Palace website on Jan. 20, 2012 near the eastern city of Lyon. Anonymous briefly knocked the FBI and Justice Department websites offline in retaliation for the US shutdown of Megaupload.
Megaupload users will have at least two more weeks before their data is wiped clean, the Washington Post reported. A dedicated site, Megaretrieval.com, has also been set up to help customers seek legal help for the return of their files.
Megaupload worked with its hosting companies to preserve data for another two weeks, which was announced via Twitter by Ira Rothken, Megaupload’s attorney.
"[Storage hosts] Carpathia and Cogent agreed to preserve consumer data for additional time of at least two weeks so #Megaupload can work with US on proposal," Rothken tweeted on Monday.
Read more at GlobalPost: Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom in court in New Zealand (VIDEO)
US prosecutors had warned that the hosting companies could wipe Megaupload’s files from their servers by Thursday. "It is our understanding that the hosting companies may begin deleting the contents of the servers as early as Feb. 2, 2012," said a letter filed with the US District Attorney's office Sunday night.
But Carpathia quickly denied the wipe-out date. "The reference to the Feb. 2, 2012 date in the Department of Justice letter for the deletion of content is not based on any information provided by Carpathia to the US Government," it said in a statement. Rothken said that both Cogent and Carpathia were open to negotiation for preserving data.
However, Carpathia went on to say 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."
Carpathia is referring users to Megaretrieval.com, where they can seek advice on the recovery of their files, the BBC reported. The site was created in partnership with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, an online rights organization that has criticized federal prosecutors' handling of the Megaupload shutdown.
"EFF is troubled that so many lawful users of Megaupload.com had their property taken from them without warning and that the government has taken no steps to help them," said EFF attorney Julie Samuels. "We think it's important that these users have their voices heard as this process moves forward."
Some pirate groups have threatened to take legal action against the US government in an bid to preserve the data – but their chances of success are low, according to PC World, since "Megaupload's terms of use agreement states users store their data with the service 'at their own risk.'"
The FBI shut down Megaupload on Jan. 19 for violating piracy laws. Its founder, Kim Schmitz, also known as "Kim Dotcom," was placed in a New Zealand jail and the company’s assets were frozen, making them unable to pay their bills to its hosting sites. Megaupload claimed to have 50 million users per day, who stored their own data also, including photos and personal documents on the site. Users haven’t been able to view their data since the site was shutdown by the government.
Read more at GlobalPost: $42 million of Megaupload's assets frozen in Hong Kong