If you are one of the approximately 60 million people who used MegaUpload to store your files, you can breathe a sigh of relief, at least for now. News.com reports that the judge in the MegaUpload case has ordered all the parties involved to work with each other to come up with a solution to preserve the data that has been stored on the now shut down website.
When US law enforcement officials decided to close down MegaUpload on online piracy charges in January, the website"s server files were preserved by one of MegaUpload"s hosts, Carpathia Hosting. The company has been holding onto the files with its own money and has been asking the judge in the case for some kind of financial help so they can continue to preserve those files.
Today, U.S. District Judge Liam O"Grady agreed that the data should be saved and ruled that MegaUpload, the US government, Carpathia and the Motion Picture Association of America should all get together to come up with a solution that will keep the MegaUpload data safe.
The judge did say that while he was "sympathetic" to Carpathia"s financial situation, he added that the company made a lot of money by hosting MegaUpload"s servers and could be held liable if the government proves its online piracy case.
MegaUpload"s lawyers said they would like to be able to get their server files back in order to prove their case against the government. However, the MPAA has already said it is opposed to this plan and today their lawyers said they are concerned that any copyrighted movies and TV shows on the servers might be redistributed if MegaUpload received their files back.