Kim Dotcom Furious After Megaupload 'Data Massacre'

One of the world's largest hosting providers has deleted more than 600 servers with links to controversial filesharing service Megaupload. The action has caused Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom to angrily lash out at the company responsible.

LeaseWeb, which is based in Europe, provides a wide range of hosted infrastructure features, including dedicated server hosting and cloud storage options.

LeaseWeb previously leased more than 600 servers to Megaupload, a filesharing site owned and operated by New Zealand's Kim Dotcom.

Megaupload has been at the center of a legal firestorm since last year, when it was shut down amid allegations that it facilitated copyright infringement.

At the time, about sixty Megaupload servers were seized by the police, with their contents exposed to U.S. officials.

Dotcom Calls Action the "Largest Data Massacre in the History of the Internet"

That was just a fraction of the roughly 700 servers Megaupload leased from LeaseWeb, however. (Source: pcworld.com)

According to Dotcom, he was only recently informed that the remaining 630 servers were deleted by LeaseWeb on February 1, 2013.

Dotcom, who says he was given no warning of LeaseWeb's plans for these servers, called the action "the largest data massacre in the history of the Internet." Dotcom added that his lawyers repeatedly asked LeaseWeb to not delete the 630 servers in question.

Servers Deleted After Payments Stop

For its part, LeaseWeb says it decided to delete the servers because Dotcom stopped paying for them. Representatives for the firm also countered Dotcom's claim that he wasn't warned of the impending deletion plan.

"We informed Megaupload about our plans to start using the servers again," said LeaseWeb security officer Alex de Joode. (Source: pcworld.com)

When asked about the lack of communication between the two sides, de Joode replied, "Probably something went wrong on Megaupload's side. But that is their problem."

In the end, Dotcom says this means "millions of personal Megaupload files, petabytes of pictures, backups, personal [and] business property" have been permanently deleted. (Source: theverge.com)

LeaseWeb "simply ignored the rights of millions of Megaupload users," Dotcom added.