Who Owns Cloud Data? MegaUpload Case Raises Questions

In pursuit of the MegaUpload online storage service, U.S. officials have raised concerns about who owes what to owners of the stored data

The U.S. government's effort to prosecute file locker site Megaupload is raising questions about who owns data that is collected from a company's customers and stored with a cloud services provider. Megaupload's storage services customers have not had access to their data since the provider was raided in January and the data became evidence, reports Kevin Fogarty at InformationWeek.

According to U.S. prosecutors who are going after Megaupload for copyright infringement, data owners are unsecured creditors who should be required to sue the provider to get their data back. Law enforcement does not have to return property to customers or victims of illegal services, Fogarty notes, and Megaupload is being treated as an illegal service.