Federal prosecutors says user data on the website Megaupload may be deleted from the site this week.
The drama dates back to Jan. 19 when the Department of Justice indicted Megaupload, a data-storage website based in Hong Kong, on copyright infringement charges. At the time, federal officials arrested the site’s seven owners, claiming in a statement they were running an “international organized criminal enterprise allegedly responsible for massive worldwide online piracy of numerous types of copyrighted works.”
Megaupload customers use the site to upload their own data, such as family photos and personal documents. Since the DOJ’s raid, users have had no access to their any of their data. The DOJ claims, however, the site has facilitated millions of illegal downloads of films, music and other content.
The Associated Press reported that a letter filed in the case last week said two storage companies—Carpathia Hosting Inc. and Cogent Communications Group Inc.—may begin deleting the data from the site on Thursday. Megaupload’s attorney Ira Rothken said the company is working with federal prosecutors to prevent any data from being deleted.
