Federal prosecutors say data from users of Mega upload could be deleted as soon as Thursday.
U.S. prosecutors blocked access to Megaupload and charged seven men, saying the site facilitated millions of illegal downloads of movies, music and other content.
The company says its millions of users stored their own data, including family photos and personal documents. They haven’t been able to see their data since the government raids this month, but there has been hope they would be able to get it back.
Megaupload hires outside companies to store the data, for a fee. But Megaupload attorney Ira Rothken said Sunday that the government has frozen its money.
A letter filed in the case Friday by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia said storage companies Carpathia Hosting Inc. and Cogent Communications Group Inc. may begin deleting data Thursday. Spokespersons for the two companies and for the U.S. Attorney’s Office did not respond to messages Sunday night.
The letter said now that the government has executed search warrants, issues about the data’s future must be resolved with the storage firms.
Rothken said the company is working with prosecutors to try to keep the data from being erased. He said at least 50 million Megaupload users have data in danger of being erased.
