Judicial hearing in Megaupload user data case
Former federal judge Abraham Sofaer joins with EFF in fight for return of property
By ECM Plus staff
ECM Plus +++ The Electronic Frontier Foundation, ssisted by retired federal judge and former State Department legal adviser Abraham D. Sofaer, asked a federal judge Friday to order the return of data to Kyle Goodwin, a Megaupload user who lost all access to his files when the cloud storage service was shut down by the U.S. government.
Megaupload.com and related sites were seized in January as part of a copyright infringement investigation.
But in addition to the alleged illegal activity by some Megaupload users, many innocent customers used the service to store legal material.
EFF said the government had failed to help Goodwin and other lawful Megaupload users get access to their data, despite months of legal wrangling.
In Friday’s hearing, EFF and Sofaer asked the court to establish a procedure by which innocent users will be able to reclaim their property, as is routinely required in the seizure of non-digital items.
