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    EFF files brief on behalf of Megaupload user, requests 'the rightful return' of his video files

    EFF files brief on behalf of Megaupload user, requests 'the rightful return' of his video files

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    The Electronic Frontier Foundation has filed a brief on behalf of a Megaupload user, requesting that a US District Court Judge establish a means for users to retrieve their data.

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    Kanye West Loves Megaupload
    Kanye West Loves Megaupload

    You may recall that the user files contained on Megaupload's servers — some 25 petabytes worth — were in danger of being deleted last February. Hosting company Carpathia still has them, however, and now the Electronic Frontier Foundation has filed a brief in a US District Court for a user who wants his data back. According to the document, Kyle Goodwin hosted video files for his business, OhioSportsNet, on Megaupload as a backup to his own hard drive. After a hard drive crash, he lost all the data — which is said to have included the raw footage for a full-length documentary, highlight reels for local student athletes, and promotional videos — and was then unable to obtain his backups from Megaupload due to the shutdown of the service. The brief calls on US District Judge Liam O'Grady to "establish a mechanism for the return of property to innocent third parties like Mr. Goodwin."

    The EFF isn't the only entity to request that the data on Megaupload's servers be protected. The Motion Picture Association of America petitioned Carpathia to retain the data in the hopes that it could aid in future legal action against Megaupload — even though keeping the data is reportedly costing Carpathia around $9,000 a day. With the fate of both the user data and Megaupload co-founder Kim Dotcom still very much up in the air, we expect we'll see more of these type of requests surface before this story comes to a close.