The data on Megaupload will not be erased for at least two more weeks, Cnet reports citing Megaupload lawyer Ira Rothken.

The data on the file hosting service, whose founders have been accused of piracy and money laundering, was in danger to be erased as soon as Thursday, Feb. 2, as the site's assets were frozen and it was unable to pay its hosting fees.

"The hosting companies have been gracious enough to provide additional time so we can work out some kind of arrangement with the government," said Rothken.

The authorities have made backups of some of the data, which is to be used as evidence, but not all of it. The deletion of all the data on Megaupload would harm users which used the service for perfectly legal purposes.

One of the hosting companies which stores some of the Megaupload data, Carpathia hosting, told us they simply cannot return users their data. "Carpathia Hosting does not have, and has never had, access to the content on MegaUpload servers and has no mechanism for returning any content residing on such servers to MegaUpload’s customers.(...) We would recommend that anyone who believes that they have content on MegaUpload servers contact MegaUpload. Please do not contact Carpathia Hosting," said Carpathia in a statement.

Hopefully, the authorities and Megaupload will find a solution to give the users a way to retrieve their data before it's erased.

Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom (a.k.a. Kim Schmitz) and six others who ran the site were indicted by The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) in January. They are accused of making $175 and causing $500 million in copyright infringement; if they're found guilty, they're looking at a maximum 20 years prison sentence.

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, tioloco, LdF, narawon.

[via Cnet]