Megaupload Data Could Be Erased This Week

All the data on Megaupload – legal or illegal – could be erased as soon as Thursday, Feb. 2, the Associated Press reports.
The file storage website hires outside companies – Carpathia Hosting Inc. and Cogent Communications Group Inc – to store its users’ data.
Since Megaupload’s assets have been frozen, the service cannot pay the hosting companies to keep hosting the data. According to a letter by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia, filed in the case Friday, Jan 27, they could begin deleting data Thursday.
Megaupload attorney Ira Rothken says the company is doing what it can to try to keep the data from being deleted. “We’re cautiously optimistic at this point that because the United States, as well as Megaupload, should have a common desire to protect consumers, that this type of agreement will get done,” he said.
If the data is indeed erased, it will be very bad news for some 50 million people who’ve used Megaupload’s services, many of them legally.
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) indicted seven people and two companies which ran Megaupload earlier in January. The site’s founder Kim Dotcom (a.k.a. Kim Schmitz) and six others are accused of making $175 and causing $500 million in copyright infringement.
If they’re found guilty in what the indictment calls a “Mega Conspiracy”, the accused could go to prison for a maximum of 20 years.

Megaupload’s Kim Dotcom Loses ‘Call of Duty’ Top Spot While in Prison [VIDEO]

Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom can’t defend his top-spot score in the game Modern Warfare: Call of Duty 3 from behind bars — he was recently bumped to the no. 2 spot by a player named Azaros.
On Wednesday, a judge denied Dotcom bail, meaning he likely won’t be able to usurp Azaros’ Modern Warfare 3 title anytime soon.
But Kim Dotcom, 38, has more troubling concerns than his gaming title. Last week, Dotcom appeared in court to face charges of copyright infringement to the tune of $175 million, and he allegedly cost copyright holders $500 million in lost revenue due to his Megaupload website.
Dotcom became the best Modern Warfare 3 player on New Year’s Eve and celebrated with friends who threw confetti on him [scroll down to see the video]. It appears as though the Megaupload millionaire adores everything “mega” — including his player name on the game: MEGARACER. The New Zealand Herald reported that a room in Dotcom’s New Zealand mansions has seven 60-inch televisions, each with its own Xbox and Lazyboy reclining chair, which from the looks of the background in the video, it may be the place where he took the no. 1 spot.
Kim Dotcom, whose real name is Kim Schmitz and is a German citizen, was arrested and detained on Jan. 20 along with three alleged accomplices in New Zealand. Because some of Megaupload‘s servers were based in Virginia, United States authorities were able to get involved in the case. He is waiting extradition to the United States to face the charges.
A fifth suspect was arrested this past Wednesday in the Netherlands. Authorities are still looking for two more suspects linked to Megaupload.
Nabbing a high-ranking score in a video game that sold more than 15 million copies takes obsessive dedication. Ironically, Megaupload might have made it even harder to reach that top spot by facilitating free downloads of games such as Modern Warfare 3.