Megaupload User Data to Be Destroyed
Will users have a chance to save their data?
The shutting down of MegaUpload is one of the biggest news stories of 2012. The piracy aspect of the story is, of course, impossible to ignore. However, there are also people that used MegaUpload to store (legal) personal files and data. These people have no way of accessing their files and if MegaUpload can't convince the United States to allow them temporary access to the service, they might lose them for good.
TorrentFreak reports that MegaUpload has received a letter from the US Attorney informing the company that data uploaded by its users may be destroyed before the end of the week.
"We received a letter very late Friday from the US Attorney that declared there could be an imminent destruction of Megaupload consumer data files on this coming Thursday," MegaUpload lawyer Ira Rothken told TorrentFreak.
The decision to delete user data is said to be a result of MegaUpload's inability to pay for the servers. The site's assets were frozen by the U.S. government so it cannot pay for the bandwidth to store users' data. This means MegaUpload users may not have the chance to save their data before it's deleted. According to TF, MegaUpload is in the process of trying to convince the government to allow users temporary access to the service.
"Megaupload’s assets were frozen by the United States. Mega needs funds unfrozen to pay for bandwidth, hosting, and systems administration in order to allow consumers to get access to their data stored in the Mega cloud and to back up the same for safekeeping," said Rothken.
Rothken said today that after talks with different parties, users' data is safe for at least two more weeks. This will mean more time for MegaUpload and the U.S. government to sort out a way for users to access their data before it is wiped.

It will go on only until enough people get together to stop it. As long as people don't care about their rights, their rights will be slowly taken away.
Exactly what "Right" do you think is being violated here?
It really wouldn't make sense for the government to actually delete the data unless they've already backed it all up. They'd be deleting evidence in their own case. MegaUpload and one of the hosting sites are looking for legal remedies. The problem there is since the data is evidence in an on-going case the government wouldn't have to turn it over, nor would they have to allow access, until after the case is resolved.
It's not people, it's money and power, and corporations have it, and the people are too stupid to realize that. Corporations have people convinced it's "class warfare" if you decry their practices, or that people not wanting to get ....ed is "envy", or that everyone or anyone can be rich. The fact is capitalism works like this you get power and leverage and once you have it, it's virtually impossible for someone who is not of the same stature to compete. Period. Can a mom and pop shop compete with Walmart heck no... is it the case that Walmart is better , no it's simply a case of they ahve the power and leverage to dominate the market, end of story.
I'm curious why they don't have access? Surely the government didn't just come in and take the servers or drives?
This is why you should never, ever, use "cloud" services..................................................
Protection from unreasonable search and seizure perhaps? How about the freedom of speech, which at least some of the files pertain to; or maybe everyone else's rights? Im Canadian, maybe I have Canadian files stored in megaupload, which according to Canada is completely legal.
I think the MegaUpload folks are trying to use 'public pressure' to get their stuff back. They have NO IDEA the world of $hit they have gotten themselves into.
Oh, and i you backed up your shit on their servers, then you deserve everything you are getting.
Richeemxx is correct. As I noted in another post a couple weeks or so ago, MegaUpload is already labled a criminal enterprise from a legal stanpoint. As such, all of its assets and products become evidence of that criminal act. As such law enforcement would have the right to hold onto those files, etc. I'm not all that familiar with Canadian law, but I believe similar laws apply there as well. Either way, since you as an owner if the file/s are not the focus of the investigation (they aren't targeting you for prosecution) the same burden of search and seizure does not fully apply. In other words, like I may have explained in the past, you may be keeping stuff in your friends garage. Your friend gets in trouble with the cops and their garage is searched by the cops. Your rights to your stuff are limited because you were not in physical ownership of any of it. You gave up any reasonable expectation of privacy by entrusting your stuff to a third party. That is basically the justification the FBI will use in terms of looking through any files they've got their hands on. You will find that unless laws are changed, or that by-laws of cloud services companies are written a bit better, this could happen anytime. Unless privacy is implicitly stated or alluded to, you give control of your stuff to a third party you risk it being cuahgt up in their wrongdoing.
Someone else mentioned that this proves SOPA and PIPA were useless then. That's not entirely correct. What SOPA and PIPA would have done is one thing; it would have rolled everything into one legal bullet. Right now, the government's prosecutors will have to compile a case with a number of different laws. Laws like SOPA/PIPA and even going back to many pieces of anti-crime law, it rolls existing law together with a few bits of new law, to make a single piece of legislation for legal coverage. It's meant to cover the bases of a problem that will be litigated more than a couple times and give prosecutors an iron-clad legal case. Which explains why it is also so easy for such a piece of legislation to overreach like SOPA did.
So I guess if a house consist of Terrorist and a bunch of innocent children, the US gov will just nuke the house instead?
p.s. if anyone is looking for a similar free host:
http://www.peeje.com/upload
imo it's better than megaupload since peeje gives u DIRECT-download links
p.s. if anyone is looking for a similar free host:
http://www.peeje.com/upload
imo it's better than megaupload since peeje gives u DIRECT-download links