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MegaUpload user wants raid documents unsealed

By | Published on Wednesday 24 October 2012

MegaUpload

The man still desperately trying to get his files back off the defunct MegaUpload servers has requested that official documents relating to the US government’s swoop on the Mega server facilities back in January be made public.

As previously reported, Kyle Goodwin is one of the former MegaUpload customers who used the file-transfer service to store his own files (rather than unlicensed music and movie files), and he lost access to that content when the feds shut-down the site without warning, amidst allegations the digital company and its management were guilty of money laundering and copyright infringement.

The switched-off servers haven’t been wiped yet, but there has been much legal wrangling over how former Mega users might be able to access their legit data (but not unlicensed content), and who would pay for the management of that process, given MegaUpload’s assets have been frozen.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation has been helping Goodwin, who has been caught between feuding rights owners, Mega chiefs and American prosecutors, and who, despite a seemingly sympathetic judge, has yet to get his files back.

The EFF argues that it needs to see paperwork relating to the American authorities’ raid on MegaUpload to assess whether Goodwin has a case to sue the government for access to his files on the basis of the Fourth Amendment right that guards against “unreasonable searches and seizures”. According to Ars Technica, the lobby group adds that “the public also has a strong interest in understanding the government process in executing search warrants on cloud computing servers that contain innocent third-party property”.

It remains to be seen if the judge hearing this case orders documents be published, and if so if they unveil anything of relevance to both Goodwin’s case, and the wider criminal action against MegaUpload and its former bosses.



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