Nine PBS, a St. Louis public broadcasting station, filed a lawsuit against Iron Mountain Data Centers in Denver District Court on July 28, seeking access to 50 terabytes of archived content that has become inaccessible. The data, which dates back 70 years, includes coverage of significant regional events and historical materials that the station describes as unique and irreplaceable.
The situation arose after Nine PBS’s cloud storage provider, Open Source Storage (OSS), ceased operations. OSS had stored Nine PBS’s data on servers housed in one of Iron Mountain’s Denver facilities. When Nine PBS attempted to renew its contract with OSS in February, the company became unresponsive. The storage contract expired on March 6, and Nine PBS lost access to the data at that time. The station subsequently discovered that OSS had become delinquent with the Colorado Secretary of State and was no longer operating.
Iron Mountain has stated that it only provides physical infrastructure—the building, power, and network connectivity—and does not have direct access to the data stored on customer servers. The company contends that it cannot release the data without authorization from OSS due to contractual obligations and data privacy concerns affecting other OSS clients. Nine PBS countered by obtaining a default judgment against OSS in St. Louis Circuit Court, establishing its right to possess the data.
A judge hearing the case this week ordered Iron Mountain to hand over the physical devices containing the data. The court also mandated that Nine PBS identify a third party, potentially a former OSS employee, to assist with data retrieval within 30 days while ensuring no other client data is compromised. Nine PBS reported that a former OSS employee has agreed to help with the recovery effort. Both parties are required to provide updates by September 14, with additional hearings to be scheduled if complications such as encryption issues arise.
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