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Comment by dos1 | Hacker News Reader

In my mind, the MPAA is certainly the best choice to pay these costs. They're the ones with the problem, they should be the ones to bear the burden. Especially considering Megaupload offered to take the data and they explicitly forbade it. If the MPAA didn't like the solutions offered, but can't come up with something better, then I think Carpathia should get to do what it wants.

Edit: The opinion above has NO legal basis whatsoever. As many have pointed out, it's not even legally possible. I made this comment solely from a "In a perfect world..." standpoint.

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The data is being held (from what I understand) as part of an FBI investigation. The MPAA may be responsible for the case existing and bringing the supposed crime to light but the FBI are the people trying the case and this is beyond the MPAA now. The responsibility lies with the government agencies.

The FBI, as MPAA's minions, should be the ones paying it. Either their "confiscate" the data or they do not. If they do, they have the responsibility to keep it up, if they do not, they should have to give it back to its "owner".

Unwitting puppets perhaps, but I doubt the people of the FBI want very much to be dealing with copyright drama. That's like fixing bugs in form code to them. It must feel like a complete waste of their time and talent.

Then they should choose not to do it.

There's no legal basis for the MPAA to bear the cost of storing the data. The MPAA is not even a party to the proceedings, which, by the way, are criminal and not at all civil.

So this confuses me a little, I would be glad if someone could explain it to me: why does the MPAA get a voice in the proceedings, if they are not a party to it?

They are the supposed victims of the alleged crime.

I could be wrong, but I believe the government's position is that they have already copied everything that they want, and that Carpathia was free to destroy the data. If they are continuing to store it of their own volition, then they are fully responsible to pay for it on their own. Even if their reason for preserving the data is for fear of a lawsuit by Megaupload or others, that is entirely their responsibility if there is no Government requested court order in place that requires them to preserve it as evidence.

If they have been ordered to hold the data/servers as evidence, then the Government, as the requesting party, is solely responsible for the costs. If and when any party is found guilty at trial, the government can ask that the guilty defendant(s) be held financially responsible for all costs of prosecution, which would include reimbursement of these expenses.

they MPAA can pay for it from a small part of the huge new profits they are seeing after stoping this international pirating operation.

>the huge new profits they are seeing after stoping this international pirating operation.

I seriously hope that was sarcasm.

As a matter of opinion, I agree. If someone claims they own something and they want to fight for it they should take responsibility for it. Property ownership comes with conditions and responsibilities. From an ethical standpoint, why should intellectual property be different? Do they own the data or not?

Expanding on this, if a company wants to claim that they always own a particular combination of bits should they pay rent for storing it on my system? The problem is people are generally short sighted and focused on the immediate future. Other considerations are rarely thought about until other people insist that something will affect their immediate future. There are costs associated with data that are rarely considered at the moment. No one to talk about this, it may change the way they do things and cost them money.

Technically, I think Carpathia can recover their costs from megaupload, even with the contract being terminated. If megaupload can't pay, then the insurer(s) should step in.

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