Let's say you are accused of robbing a convenience store. The police take the security footage, review it, and then erase it. According to everyone that saw the tape, you did it, and perhaps they even retain a few seconds of footage that shows something like a coat that you own.
Would you think it fair that one party gets to use evidence to convict you, that you yourself are not allowed to see, or use for your own defense?
The convenience store owner would be furious about the lost business from having to shutter the store for months or years, watching as formerly faithful customers just walk on by.
Does suing the government ever actually work?
(Honest question, I'm not an American and I've only seen people try to sue in high-profile cases like PRISM, which never seems to get them anywhere)
There are certain laws in place to keep people from willy-nilly suing the government, but there are situations where it is possible to sue them and sometimes even win. (not sure about this case in particular, anyone want to weigh in?)
"1946: Ford sues the allies for damages done to his factories in Dresden during the infamous bombing, and wins compensation."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Ford_Motor_Company </br> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombing_of_Dresden_in_World_Wa...
http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9240179/LeaseWeb_wipe...
Without a court order to keep the servers accessible and running they had every right to delete them (since they own the machines). One would think the prosecution would have had that order in place just so the defendant couldn't say there was no way to prove his innocence
Why would the defense (i.e. the owner of the data) not have the same opportunity as the prosecution to review their own material?
The only counter-argument that I can see is that Mega should continue paying their hosting bills for as long as the government wants to drag the trial on for. Which very well was a possible intent from the start. In which case, the entire thing seems like a government strong-arm, of which I am not in favor.
(Pre-emptive edit: I'm not saying the host should have to take losses for this; the investigators should have been responsible for paying for/backing up the 3rd party data.)