MegaUpload
MegaUpload

MegaUpload users may heave a sigh of relief, as the companies that host the site's service, Carpathia Hosting and Cogent Communications, have mutually agreed to provide a two-week amnesty for the users' data from being deleted.

Giving the opportunity to users for retrieving their content might actually conflict with the interests of the copyright owners, as there is no control over what the users might really do with downloaded copyright content.

The amnesty comes in the wake of several hundred legitimate users losing access to their invaluable data after MegaUpload's abrupt shutdown. The U.S. Justice Department initially sounded harsh saying that users had been warned to keep backup copies of the files they uploaded.

Besides, thwarting MegaUpload users from accessing their legitimate files will be a violation of 1st Amendment rights, according to Julie Samuels, a staff attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Meanwhile, the Justice department is reportedly having constructive conversations with MegaUpload to resolve users' file access issues.

Besides, the closure of the website and seizing of MegaUpload's assets by the Justice Department has rendered the company bankrupt. As a result, it is unable to pay its leasing bills to the two service providers - Carpathia Hosting and Cogent Communications.

"The hosting companies have been gracious enough to provide additional time so we can work out some kind of arrangement with the government," said Ira Rothken, MegaUpload's U.S. attorney, according to news reports in the wake of the amnesty granted to the file-sharing website.

The two-way negotiations with Justice Department and service providers could also help debt-ridden MegaUpload to raise funds and pay up the hosting providers to recover data. According to LA Times, EFF and Carpathia launched a website - Megaretrieval.com on Tuesday, to gather information from "innocent users who stored legitimate, non-infringing files."

There is still no clue as to when the MegaUpload users will gain access to their legitimate data, as the servers remain offline ever since the website went down a few days back. It is only imperative that the concerned authorities protect the rights of the innocent third-parties who got dragged into the quagmire.

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