Leaseweb has wiped all Megaupload servers

[gizmo]

I was under the impression that the megaupload servers weren't paid for after Kim's assets got frozen. Leaseweb was forced to keep the data for the duration of the investigation, and had to eat the losses. My guess is that Leaseweb reached the point where they just want to cut their losses and move on. I highly doubt Leaseweb wiped the Megaupload servers "just because".

This looks like an attempt by Kim to create outrage and bad PR for Leaseweb.

[s_henry_paulson]

Disagree.

Let's say you are accused of robbing a convenience store. The police take the security footage, review it, and then erase it. According to everyone that saw the tape, you did it, and perhaps they even retain a few seconds of footage that shows something like a coat that you own.

Would you think it fair that one party gets to use evidence to convict you, that you yourself are not allowed to see, or use for your own defense?

[kzrdude]

There shouldn't need to be any bad PR for leaseweb.. they need to do what they must do. The bad PR should be for the american operation to shut this down.. now evidence is lost in the case. Of course there doesn't seem to be a real case going, I think they are satisfied with the destruction caused already.

[mtgx]

I doubt it. They could've at least give a warning "hey if you don't way us within the next 10 days we're going to delete everything".

I'm sure they expected the backlash, too, if they were going to do it without warning. So this looks like they were forced to do it in some way.

[onli]

What losses? We talk about data here. The disks used were not available for future business, that are only potential losses, not a further and further amount of high costs piling up. Besides, in which state is it legal to destroy evidence, especially before the trial?

[pheew]

A very good friend of mine is high up the management tree at Ocom (parent company of Leaseweb) and told me they wiped the servers 2 weeks after he got arrested because there were no requests from the dutch government to seize the servers. It's standard policy for Leaseweb to wipe servers 2 weeks after the account is closed and my guess is that Mr. Dotcom knew this very well.

[philliphaydon]

I don't believe you, I just spend the last 30 minutes looking through all the legal, privacy, terms etc of lease web and NO where does it warn you that data will be kept for 2 weeks after the closure of an account before its deleted.

But apparently monthly backups are kept for 2 years.

I bet Leaseweb wants to cover their ass incase they got in trouble for what ever was on the drives.

[tripzilch]

Huh, what's the Dutch government have to do with this case? Did I miss something?

[piqufoh]

"They informed us TODAY that servers were deleted on February 1st, 2013." https://twitter.com/KimDotcom/status/347346908462841856

[tripzilch]

Huh, so the evidence against Mega/Dotcom was already gone since February? Why didn't they say anything?

How far was the case at that time?

While LeaseWeb should've given some advance warning (that would've been reasonable, considering Mega was probably one of their biggest customers), the destruction of all this data is on the US gov's hand, obviously.

[Avenger42]

Sounds like spoliation to me:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spoliation_of_evidence

> The spoliation inference is a negative evidentiary inference that a finder of fact can draw from a party's destruction of a document or thing that is relevant to an ongoing or reasonably foreseeable civil or criminal proceeding: the finder of fact can review all evidence uncovered in as strong a light as possible against the spoliator and in favor of the opposing party.

[mtgx]

So will the case simply be dismissed now, like Daniel Ellsberg case was dismissed when the court found out the government was illegally wiretapping him?

[preinheimer]

What were they supposed to do? They filed motions a long time ago that the cost of simply being forced to store a lot of data for a client who couldn't pay them (because their funds had been frozen) was incredibly high.

The government wasn't going to let them sell the servers to dotcom, and they had a business to run.

[smackfu]

And maybe at the end of all this, the government will get a conviction. Maybe.

[downandout]

I can't imagine that this is a big deal, even though Kim Dotcom is trying to make it one. His lawyers have had ample time to copy anything they needed, and for trial purposes a backup of every file is not necessary. A copy of their database containing names and descriptions of files, along with their actual code for the site, should be more than adequate to present a defense that they aren't criminally liable for copyright infringement.

He may have had dreams of resurrecting MegaUpload as a business, but any hope of that was gone within a few days of the domain seizure. That's why they seize domains - it doesn't matter whether they win or lose at trial or drop the charges. They get to give target sites the death penalty long before the owners ever set foot in a courtroom.

[kamjam]

He may have had dreams of resurrecting MegaUpload as a business, but any hope of that was gone within a few days of the domain seizure. That's why they seize domains - it doesn't matter whether they win or lose at trial or drop the charges. They get to give target sites the death penalty long before the owners ever set foot in a courtroom.

You don't seriously believe that do you? PirateBay domain has been blocked from the UK but it it still accessible if you know how or through a different domain names. KickAssTorrent (kat.ph) domain name was recently seized by Phillipine authorities but it was back up within hours. A simple Google search will point you to the new domain name, in this modern age the domain name really doesn't mean that much once you have the brand established.

http://torrentfreak.com/kickasstorrents-domain-seized-after-...

[trothamel]

This is a big deal, though - not for MegaUpload, but for the many people who used MegaUpload to host their files.

I can point to many computer games that were distributed through MegaUpload - perfectly legal games - that have now disappeared, at least from public view. (This might have been a bad idea - it was - but many of these games were made by inexperienced creators, and what's done is done.)

[stephengillie]

Apparently Carpathia just shoved Mega's HDD's (or maybe full racks?) into a warehouse instead of wiping them.

http://inagist.com/all/347346225932165120/

[mark-r]

So how much trouble would it have been to spin the disks down, take them out and store them in a closet somewhere and tell Kim "We know you're having financial difficulties now but you can have them back for $X when some of your funds get unlocked"? It's not like his troubles were a secret. That would eliminate the majority of the daily cost of keeping the data online.

[preinheimer]

A lot.

They're undoubtedly in some sort of raid, so they're going to need to un-rack every device, pull every single drive, label its position within the raid set, pack them properly, then store in a temperature controlled environment. Then follow along, slotting new drives they purchased in every single slot, then re-rack the whole device.

All in the hope that one day Kim will 1) Win and 2) decide it's worth it to get the data back for a business model & product he's left behind.

[technifreak]

Isn't that tampering with evidence?

[andyjohnson0]

Different jurisdictions. The court case is in the US but the servers are in the Netherlands.

[av500]

that's what you get when you store data "in the cloud"...

[TallGuyShort]

And the physical seizure is what you get when you store data "on bare metal"... I agree that cloud services have their risks, but it's hardly relevant here.

[MartinodF]

Well, if you stop paying for the "cloud" storage you're using, I don't know what else you could expect...

[codesuela]

Aren't the Leaseweb servers just a mirror of the US servers? Being an international hoster it wouldn't make much sense to host individual files on just one server.

Also while this sure sucks for people who had files hosted there what was Leaseweb supposed to do? Can't really fault them for wiping servers that nobody paid for. Also this prevents them getting dragged into any legal proceedings like when the proscuter decides he needs more data for his case.

[codeoclock]

Looks like it was the only place European users data was stored. https://twitter.com/KimDotcom/status/347373843767238658

[will118]

I haven't been following his case in too much detail;

I understand that some people used Megaupload for genuine cloud storage, even though it was a small fraction.

I have noticed Kim is always talking about wanting his data back, can anybody tell me why?

I thought some of the evidence was conversations essentially about enticing people to upload more (pirated) content, what exactly was on the Leaseweb servers that would help Kim out?

I'd always thought he would have wanted them wiped?

[dagw]

I'd always thought he would have wanted them wiped?

Maybe he did want it wiped, but didn't want it to look like it he wanted it wiped. Being able to go "They destroyed all the evidence, now I can never prove of my innocence" is a pretty nice PR card to play irregardless of the facts.

[tobiasu]

He is playing the "Megaupload is a legit service with legit users" card. And that may be true for some percentage of his paying customers.

Fighting for his customers data makes him look good and the DOJ/Leaseweb look bad. What's not to like about his strategy?

[rsofaer]

He would have liked to use all the non-infringing content that was there as evidence that Megaupload was a genuine cloud storage company.

[shared4you]

I can't believe Kim Dotcom stored the data on only Leaseweb's servers. I hope he has backup copies or mirrors from another storage provider.

[benguild]

Agreed. Normally server companies backup to tape. Where are the tapes?

[showsover]

Why is "without warning" in quotes? Did he get a warning but chose to ignore it? Didn't they send a warning?

I'm also pretty wary about believing wat mr. Dotcom says without a different side of the story.

[mikeevans]

He claims that they informed him today that the data was deleted in February.

https://twitter.com/KimDotcom/status/347346908462841856

[richkuo]

The irony is that Leaseweb's slogan is "reliable hosting"

[jacquesm]

And they are extremely reliable. If you pay your bills. Happy Leaseweb customer for over 5 years.

[bdcravens]

Pretty sure the reliability applies only to paying customers. MegaUpload's account wasn't active - what were they to do? In a perfect world the US government would be compensating them, but like all businesses, they had to make the best decision given the circumstances (Mega's funds frozen, potential legal liability in giving data, daily cost to keep data)

[mikeash]

I doubt they guarantee reliability even after you stop paying for it.

[thesmileyone]

I firsthandedly had dealings with Kimdotcom and I hope he gets everything he deserves. He is pondscum.

Was partly my own fault (for being naive) however he still broke his word!

[EugeneOZ]

Such big service without backups? Can't believe.

[Apreche]

No backups?

[wmf]

Do CDNs back up customer data?

[danielweber]

But, encryption!