Nine PBS, a St. Louis-based public television station, initiated legal action against Iron Mountain Data Centers on July 28 to regain access to approximately 50 terabytes of digital content stored at one of the company’s Denver facilities. The station’s cloud storage provider, Open Source Storage (OSS), ceased operations without providing the station access to its data as the service contract expired on March 6.
The archived materials span seven decades and include coverage of significant regional events such as the COVID-19 pandemic, East St. Louis history, and The Great Flood of 1993. The station’s complaint identifies most of the content as unique and irreplaceable. Nine PBS reportedly attempted to renew its contract with OSS in February but received no response. When the March 6 contract termination date arrived, the station lost access to its data despite contractual provisions allowing 30 days for data retrieval.
Iron Mountain maintains that it functions solely as a physical infrastructure provider, offering building space, network connectivity, power, and environmental controls to its customers. The company states it cannot access data stored on hardware belonging to OSS clients and contends that providing unauthorized access would violate data privacy protocols and potentially compromise confidential information belonging to other OSS customers.
In legal proceedings, a judge issued an order requiring Iron Mountain to surrender 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 safeguarding other clients’ information. Nine PBS indicated it is already in communication with a former OSS employee willing to participate in recovery efforts. Both parties must provide status updates by September 14, with the possibility of additional hearings if technical complications emerge during the retrieval process.
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