Court rules St. Louis PBS station can recover archive from Iron Mountain
A Missouri judge has ordered data center company Iron Mountain to cooperate with Nine PBS in recovering decades of archived materials that became inaccessible after the station's cloud storage provider shut down.
A judge in Missouri has sided with St. Louis public broadcaster Nine PBS in a dispute over access to a decades-old digital archive. The ruling, issued after a court hearing on Wednesday, requires data center operator Iron Mountain to help Nine PBS retrieve its archival materials, which have been tied up since the station's cloud storage provider went out of business.
Nine PBS filed a lawsuit against Iron Mountain in July. The station had been trying to regain access to about 70 years' worth of cultural artifacts, including TV shows, videos, photos and other digital items documenting St. Louis history. According to the complaint, the data was originally stored by Open Source Storage (OSS), a cloud service provider that later ceased operations. Iron Mountain hosted the physical equipment for OSS, but argued that its contract was with OSS, not with Nine PBS.
The dispute began in March, when Nine PBS learned that OSS would not renew its contract. Instead of allowing the standard 30-day window to retrieve the data, OSS immediately cut off access, according to the lawsuit. The station later reached out to OSS's new owner, who confirmed in April that the archive was safe. After that owner left the company, Nine PBS turned to Iron Mountain for help, but the data center provider refused to hand over the files.
In court, Iron Mountain said it had acted appropriately and responsibly, adding that it had been transparent with Nine PBS about its role and had tried to help resolve the issue.
The judge ordered Iron Mountain to cooperate with Nine PBS in any way possible to recover the data. Nine PBS must also name a third-party vendor to access the data from Iron Mountain's facility and ensure that no other OSS clients' data is harmed. If the recovery turns out to be complicated, the judge said a further hearing would be scheduled.
Nine PBS vice president and chief content officer Leah Freeman welcomed the decision, saying the court confirmed that the station rightfully owns its archival materials.
The case highlights a common risk with cloud storage. Experts often recommend the "3-2-1 rule": keep three copies of each file on two different types of storage, with one copy stored offsite. That approach provides a safety net if a cloud vendor disappears or a physical drive fails.
