You may remember that EFF’s client, Kyle Goodwin, asked the court to return the legal files he lost when Megaupload was seized last January. Since then, we’ve been to court, both for a hearing and a mediation, and nothing has changed. The key problem: the government has failed to help third parties like Kyle get access to their data. So we have no choice but to go back to court.

Today, EFF filed a brief asking for the court to order Kyle’s rightfully owned data returned. And it’s not just about Kyle’s property: it’s about the property of many other legal Megaupload users, too. We’ve asked the court to implement a procedure to make all of those consumers whole again by granting them access to what is legally theirs. Especially given that the use of cloud computing services is already widespread and poised to grow exponentially in the next few years, we believe the court should ensure that such innocent users do not become regular collateral damage.

Kyle Goodwin, and others like him, did nothing but legitimately use a cloud storage service to house legal files – in Kyle’s case, business files, but many others lost access to personal and private information as well. We believe the time has long passed for those folks to get their data back. We hope the court agrees.