Millions of users who stored files on the Megaupload web site got caught by surprise in January when US law enforcement officials shut down the site and arrested several of its team members on online piracy charges. However some people may feel about these actions, the reality is that some users of Megaupload did use the site for completely legitimate reasons.
Now one of the two server hosting companies that Megaupload used, Carpathia Hosting, has announced it is teaming up with the non-profit Electronic Frontier Foundation to help some of Megaupload"s users retrieve their files. There was a threat that the files could be deleted later this week but that threat has been pushed back, at least for the moment.
The EFF and Carpathia have launched a web site, MegaRetrival.com, that provides information about this plan. The EFF will provide legal help to any user who wants to gain access back to their legitimate files that were stored on Megaupload"s servers. Any user can contact the EFF at megauploadmissing@eff.org for more information.
Carpathia"s CMO Brian Winter stated:
We have no immediate plans to reprovision some or all of the Megaupload servers. This means that there is no imminent data loss for Megaupload customers. If this situation changes, we will post a notice at least 7 days in advance of reprovisioning any Megaupload servers at www.Carpathia.com and www.MegaRetrieval.com.
There"s no word if Megaupload"s other server host, Cogent Communications, plans to join the EFF in this effort.