Kim Dotcom today said on Twitter that Megaupload user data in Europe has been "irreversibly lost" because it was deleted by a Netherlands-based server hosting company called LeaseWeb. VERY BAD NEWS: #Leaseweb has wiped ALL #Megaupload servers. All user data & crucial evidence for our defense destroyed "without warning".
Dotcom said LeaseWeb informed his team today that Megaupload servers were deleted on Feb. 1, 2013. "Our lawyers have repeatedly asked #Leaseweb not to delete #Megaupload servers while court proceedings are pending in the US," Dotcom tweeted. "We asked the DOJ to release some of #Megaupload's frozen assets to buy ALL servers. They refused." The lost data includes "[m]illions of personal #Megaupload files, petabytes of pictures, backups, personal & business property," Dotcom wrote. LeaseWeb said it deleted the data because Dotcom didn't pay his bills and didn't respond to messages:
When MegaUpload was taken offline, 60 servers owned by MegaUpload were directly confiscated by the FIOD [a Dutch anti-fraud agency] and transported to the US. Next to that, MegaUpload still had 630 rented dedicated servers with LeaseWeb. For clarity, these servers were not owned by MegaUpload, they were owned by LeaseWeb. For over a year these servers were being stored and preserved by LeaseWeb, at its own costs. So for over one whole year LeaseWeb kept 630 servers available, without any request to do so and without any compensation…
LeaseWeb has 60,000 servers under its management and more than 15,000 clients worldwide. The storage of the 630 servers—while a relatively small burden—must serve a purpose. During the year we stored the servers and the data, we received no request for access nor any request to retain the data. After a year of nobody showing any interest in the servers and data we considered our options. We did inform MegaUpload about our decision to re-provision the servers.
As no response was received, we commenced the re-provisioning of the servers in February 2013. To minimize security risks and maximize the privacy of our clients, it is a standard procedure at LeaseWeb to completely clean servers before they are offered to any new customer.
Dotcom offers a different account, saying his legal team and the Electronic Frontier Foundation "have written several data preservation demands to #Leaseweb. We were never warned about the deletion." LeaseWeb "could have waited for the US court to decide on #Megaupload user data," he further wrote. "They knew of our desire to pay if the court released funds."
