Fate of data held by Megaupload up in the air
(AP) -- A judge has ordered further negotiations on what should be done with millions of data files that were removed from the Internet when federal investigators shut down one of the world's largest filesharing sites.
The judge heard arguments Friday in federal court in Alexandria on what to do with files once controlled by the website Megaupload.com.
Prosecutors say Megaupload was a criminal enterprise that facilitated illegal sharing of copyright-protected movies and TV shows. The government shut down the site when it charged the company's top officials earlier this year.
Carpathia Hosting, the Dulles, Virginia company that owns the 1,100 servers holding Megaupload's data wants guidance on what to do with the files. Megaupload no longer pays for the servers' upkeep, but wants to preserve the files as potential evidence.
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