Nine PBS, a St. Louis-based public television station, initiated litigation against Iron Mountain Data Centers in late July seeking access to approximately 50 terabytes of digital materials stored at an Iron Mountain facility in Denver. The data in question comprises television programming, videos, and archival content spanning seven decades, including coverage of significant regional events such as the COVID-19 pandemic, local history, and major natural disasters.
The dispute arose after Nine PBS’s cloud storage provider, Open Source Storage, ceased operations and became unresponsive to the station’s attempts to maintain or retrieve its data. Nine PBS had contracted with OSS for hardware, software, and cloud storage services but lost access to the materials when its service agreement expired in March. The station subsequently discovered that OSS had entered delinquent status with the Colorado Secretary of State. After initial attempts to communicate with OSS leadership proved unsuccessful, Nine PBS obtained a default judgment in St. Louis Circuit Court affirming its right to possess and retrieve the data.
Iron Mountain has maintained that it cannot unilaterally provide Nine PBS with access to the data because it functions as an infrastructure provider renting physical server space to OSS, not as the data custodian. The company stated that granting unauthorized access to third-party hardware could violate privacy protocols, breach its contractual obligations to OSS, and potentially expose confidential information belonging to other OSS clients without proper legal authorization.
During a recent court hearing, a judge ordered Iron Mountain to transfer any physical devices containing the data to Nine PBS. The court also mandated that Nine PBS identify a third party, potentially a former OSS employee, to assist in data retrieval within 30 days while ensuring no corruption or unauthorized access to other clients’ information. Nine PBS indicated it has already connected with a former OSS employee willing to assist with the recovery process. Both parties are required to provide status updates by September 14.
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