Judge Sets Framework For Nine PBS to Retrieve 70 Years of Archival TV Data (current.org)
(Monday August 17, 2026 @05:00PM (BeauHD)
from the data-rescue dept.)
- Reference: 0185023996
- News link: https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/26/08/17/1919201/judge-sets-framework-for-nine-pbs-to-retrieve-70-years-of-archival-tv-data
- Source link: https://current.org/2026/08/judge-sets-framework-for-nine-pbs-to-retrieve-archival-data/
District Court Judge Eric Elliff has [1]ordered Iron Mountain to cooperate with Nine PBS in recovering [2]roughly 50TB of archival material stored through now-defunct vendor OSS. "He found that the station is the rightful owner of the materials and entitled to recover them from OSS' storage systems," reports Current.org. Nine PBS must identify a third party to help retrieve the files, pay outstanding storage fees, and ensure that data belonging to other OSS customers isn't disturbed or accidentally recovered. From the report:
> Under his order, Nine PBS is to identify a third-party vendor, such as a former OSS employee, who can assist in accessing and retrieving the data from the infrastructure that's housed in Iron Mountain's center within 30 days. Elliff acknowledged the complexities of Iron Mountain's position as a vendor to OSS, which, according to Nine PBS' complaint, is in delinquency. Iron Mountain is the "custodian" of Nine PBS' data, but it isn't the vendor that contracted with the station to store and preserve its data. That obligation remains with OSS. Under the order, Nine PBS will pay Iron Mountain current and past-due fees for data storage, starting from when OSS stopped paying Iron Mountain for use of its data storage facility.
>
> During the hearing, Gregory Rich, an attorney representing Nine PBS, said the station seeks access to a physical cage where the data is housed within Iron Mountain's facility. The station is in contact with a former OSS employee who is willing to help obtain the data. The attorney noted that the data could potentially be stored in physical form, such as tapes that could be easily retrieved. But if the materials are on a server, Nine PBS could lose the materials forever if Iron Mountain shuts it down. William Cravens, the attorney representing Iron Mountain, told the judge his client doesn't know the format of Nine PBS' materials that were stored by OSS. He expressed concern about whether Nine PBS' archival material is lumped together with data from other OSS clients. Iron Mountain wants to avoid potentially corrupting the other data, Cravens added.
>
> Elliff ordered the immediate return of any physical devices that hold Nine PBS' data once access to OSS' storage system is granted. If data retrieval turns out to be more complicated -- if it is encrypted, for example -- he will schedule another hearing to determine how to proceed. Once Nine PBS retrieves its data, the station must work with a third party to ensure that no data from other OSS customers is among those materials.
[1] https://current.org/2026/08/judge-sets-framework-for-nine-pbs-to-retrieve-archival-data/
[2] https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/26/08/14/1747213/pbs-station-fears-losing-50tb-of-data-after-being-ghosted-by-cloud-provider
> Under his order, Nine PBS is to identify a third-party vendor, such as a former OSS employee, who can assist in accessing and retrieving the data from the infrastructure that's housed in Iron Mountain's center within 30 days. Elliff acknowledged the complexities of Iron Mountain's position as a vendor to OSS, which, according to Nine PBS' complaint, is in delinquency. Iron Mountain is the "custodian" of Nine PBS' data, but it isn't the vendor that contracted with the station to store and preserve its data. That obligation remains with OSS. Under the order, Nine PBS will pay Iron Mountain current and past-due fees for data storage, starting from when OSS stopped paying Iron Mountain for use of its data storage facility.
>
> During the hearing, Gregory Rich, an attorney representing Nine PBS, said the station seeks access to a physical cage where the data is housed within Iron Mountain's facility. The station is in contact with a former OSS employee who is willing to help obtain the data. The attorney noted that the data could potentially be stored in physical form, such as tapes that could be easily retrieved. But if the materials are on a server, Nine PBS could lose the materials forever if Iron Mountain shuts it down. William Cravens, the attorney representing Iron Mountain, told the judge his client doesn't know the format of Nine PBS' materials that were stored by OSS. He expressed concern about whether Nine PBS' archival material is lumped together with data from other OSS clients. Iron Mountain wants to avoid potentially corrupting the other data, Cravens added.
>
> Elliff ordered the immediate return of any physical devices that hold Nine PBS' data once access to OSS' storage system is granted. If data retrieval turns out to be more complicated -- if it is encrypted, for example -- he will schedule another hearing to determine how to proceed. Once Nine PBS retrieves its data, the station must work with a third party to ensure that no data from other OSS customers is among those materials.
[1] https://current.org/2026/08/judge-sets-framework-for-nine-pbs-to-retrieve-archival-data/
[2] https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/26/08/14/1747213/pbs-station-fears-losing-50tb-of-data-after-being-ghosted-by-cloud-provider
When you find out (Score:3)
by awwshit ( 6214476 )
This is what happens when you find out the "the cloud" is someone's computer, but not yours, and maybe not the person you pay either. How did that Easy button work out?
They should also recruit slashdot readers (Score:2)
by 2phar ( 137027 )
to assist with identifying all those dupes they might find in the data.
The lesson is simple. (Score:2)
by Tarlus ( 1000874 )
Back your shit up.
will the former OSS employee be protected from bei (Score:2)
will the former OSS employee be protected from being sued or facing some hacking charge?
Re: (Score:2)
Sued by whom?
Re: (Score:2)
I would imagine whatever entity that remains of OSS could sue the former employee for breaching company data, as well as any other customer of OSS for breech of data, data release, or data loss. I personally wouldn't touch this if I were a former OSS employee without some granting of immunity by the judge, if that's even possible.
Re: (Score:3)
I'm sure they're much happier with this outcome than most of the likely alternatives, but it's unconscionable a non-profit entity is going to pay $$$$ just to get back their own data from a company in breach of contact - A contract explicitly to safely store Nine PBS' data.
OSS' founder and former CEO Eren Niazi should be personally liable for every single dollar and legal issue that arises from the mess he allowed to happen. We're not talking about IBM, this was a company with a whopping 51 employees at i
Re: (Score:1)
They're suppose to pay what they would otherwise have paid to OSS to store their data. So I think the only extra money they're out will be the legal fees. Which isn't nothing but I guess that's the cost of not doing proper and accessible backups.
Re: (Score:1)
The article says, "He also ordered Nine PBS to defend and indemnify Iron Mountain should other data be corrupted in the process of retrieving its archival materials."
So the answer to your question appears to be yes.