Comment by s1artibartfast
19 hours ago
Im curious why this topic has been popping up in the news. It seems like a bog standard contractor/subcontractor obligation case.
19 hours ago
Im curious why this topic has been popping up in the news. It seems like a bog standard contractor/subcontractor obligation case.
If Iron Mountain made a deal with PBS-affiliate, they'd be breaking the terms of the contract with their customer (the fact it is defunct is just an asterisk). If you were an Iron Mountain client and one of your customers made an end run around you to go directly to Iron Mountain because they refused to pay your bill, you'd be pissed at Iron Mountain.
By solving this as they have done, Iron Mountain can assure other clients they will not just let a third person circumvent their clients. They can now say they only did it by a court order even if they were more than willing to accept the asterisk and do it on principle. Everyone is happy. Everyone is whole.
Thats my impression too. Iron mountain is doing exactly what I would want if I had data with them.
If you are wharehousing data, you dont just let your customer's customer come in, look around, and take whatever they want. Even if they have a sob story.
You ask for a court order with specifics.
The initial reporting implied it was some catastrophic data loss, like https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_Universal_Studios_fire. The truth, while concerning, is a lot more boring.
Also some articles and people on social media were unclear that it was just a single PBS station involved, rather than all PBS content. I saw comments that thought that all the archives for Sesame Street were lost.
Apparently PBS doesn't have some kind of massive conglomerate backup or archives of things that its member stations produce. It's up to every station to archive or back up their own stuff. No standardization as to storage formats, NASes, tapes, or anything.
Sometimes things are transmitted in painful ways like rebroadcast in off hours over microwave links between members so they can re-record what they lost.
Plus the endless game of "hey does anyone have that one obscure episode of this one program we made?" to your colleagues...
It's the original torrent network
Archival/secure storage is big business with big liability headaches if you make a bad decisiion.
A non-profit in a deeply unfair situation tugs at the heartstrings.
What is unfair? It seems completely normal and what courts are for sorting out. Iron mountain is acting exactly how I would want them to if they were storing data for me.
If you are wharehousing data, you dont just let your customer's customer come in, look around, and take whatever they want. Even if they have a sob story.
You ask for a court order with specifics.
How about before the company went out of business? Wasn’t there an avenue for the CEO to send a letter to Iron Mountain mapping the data and its owners or make an arrangement to legally transfer the data or something?
It's unfair when you do the best you can and suddenly you have to talk to lawyers.
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