Megaupload Data Could Be Erased This Week

All the data on Megaupload – legal or illegal – could be erased as soon as Thursday, Feb. 2, the Associated Press reports.
The file storage website hires outside companies – Carpathia Hosting Inc. and Cogent Communications Group Inc – to store its users’ data.
Since Megaupload’s assets have been frozen, the service cannot pay the hosting companies to keep hosting the data. According to a letter by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia, filed in the case Friday, Jan 27, they could begin deleting data Thursday.
Megaupload attorney Ira Rothken says the company is doing what it can to try to keep the data from being deleted. “We’re cautiously optimistic at this point that because the United States, as well as Megaupload, should have a common desire to protect consumers, that this type of agreement will get done,” he said.
If the data is indeed erased, it will be very bad news for some 50 million people who’ve used Megaupload’s services, many of them legally.
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) indicted seven people and two companies which ran Megaupload earlier in January. The site’s founder Kim Dotcom (a.k.a. Kim Schmitz) and six others are accused of making $175 and causing $500 million in copyright infringement.
If they’re found guilty in what the indictment calls a “Mega Conspiracy”, the accused could go to prison for a maximum of 20 years.