The EFF is asking the court to unfreeze video files of Kyle Goodwin, who operates an Ohio sports website. Goodwin stored his video footage on Megaupload's servers as a backup to his hard drive, the foundation explained in a statement.
In January, the FBI shut down Megaupload.com for copyright infringement and executed search warrants on the company's servers hosted by Carpathia, locking out Megaupload customers in the process. When Goodwin's hard drive crashed, he could not get access to any of his own video files, which he needed to conduct his business. Federal authorities have said that Carpathia can delete the Megaupload data it is hosting.
"The court can help make Mr. Goodwin – an innocent party here – whole again", said EFF staff attorney Julie Samuels. "With government seizures growing, we're likely to see more and more cases like this, where lawful customers of a cloud service lose property in a federal copyright case. We're hoping the court will set an important precedent to protect users from overzealous government agents."
This puts EFF on the same side as the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), which asked a federal judge last month to save data seized from Megaupload. MPAA said it wants the data because it could sue Megaupload and others involved in the file-sharing service for copyright infringement.