Andre Yoskowitz
10 Apr 2012 18:15
Attorneys for the former top cyberlocker Megaupload have come out swinging, calling the criminal prosecution of the site's top executives "unduly adventurous," while accusing the government of trying to destroy evidence in the case.
"In essence, the government has taken what it wants from the scene of the alleged crime and is content that the remaining evidence, even if it is exculpatory or otherwise relevant to the defense, be destroyed," says defense attorney Paul Brinkman.
A hearing on the court case, which is the largest copyright case ever, will focus on over 25 petabytes of data seized from 1100 servers in January.
The government has openly admitted to copying "selected data" from the servers and has now cleared hosting service Carpathia to delete the rest. Brinkman is accusing the government of "cherry picking" relevant data "to support its theories of criminal misconduct."
Megaupload and Carphathia set up a deal where the host would retain the data for an indefinite period for $1.5 million but the government will not unfreeze the $50 million in assets taken from CEO Kim Dotcom and other executives. The data currently costs Carpathia $9000 per day to host.