Nine PBS sues Iron Mountain over blocked access to archival data
A St. Louis PBS affiliate has sued storage giant Iron Mountain after a small intermediary cloud vendor collapsed, leaving the station unable to access 50 TB of digitized archives spanning 70 years of local TV history. Commenters debate where responsibility lies, noting Iron Mountain’s liability concerns, the risks of multi-layer vendor chains, and the legal ambiguity over who “owns” data when a reseller disappears. Many argue the loss of access — over what is now a modest amount of data — highlights basic backup failures and renews calls for multiple copies, offsite redundancy, and more trusted archival custodians such as the Internet Archive.
Scope of the Incident
- Many clarify it’s not “PBS” broadly but a single affiliate: Nine PBS (KETC, St. Louis).
- The station’s 50TB archive is not believed destroyed but is legally inaccessible and at risk if storage is deprovisioned.
- Some link a follow-up article describing a court framework for retrieval, but technical details (e.g., encryption keys, server setup) remain unclear.
Roles of OSS and Iron Mountain
- Consensus that OSS acted as an intermediary/consultant, with Iron Mountain providing actual storage or facilities.
- Debate over whether Iron Mountain is just a colo/host with no visibility into OSS’s systems, or a higher-level storage provider. The article is unclear.
- Iron Mountain initially indicated willingness to release data, then reversed course, now insisting OSS is the customer of record and a court order is needed to avoid liability.
Ownership, Liability, and Legal Process
- Some argue the analogy to a physical storage unit: the customer (Nine PBS) still owns the contents even if the vendor fails.
- Others emphasize Iron Mountain cannot safely verify “sub-customer” claims without OSS, so waiting for a court order is reasonable.
- General sentiment: the situation is legally complex but lucrative for lawyers, with “possession vs. ownership” central.
Backups, Risk Management, and Cost
- Heavy discussion of the 3-2-1 backup rule and long-standing best practices (multiple copies, multiple media, offsite).
- Many note 50TB is modest by modern standards and could be backed up with a relatively inexpensive NAS plus cloud or tape.
- Others push back: nonprofits have constrained budgets and minimal IT staff; outsourcing to a specialist seemed rational, even if it failed.
- Some criticize Nine PBS governance for relying on a single provider; others insist the real failure is vendors and intermediaries behaving badly.
Alternatives and Archival Philosophy
- Internet Archive and similar services are praised as more trustworthy long-term custodians, though posters warn not to rely on any single provider.
- Tape (e.g., LTO) is defended as suitable for multi-decade archival; NAS is framed as active storage, not sole archive.
- Broader skepticism of cloud/intermediary dependence and public–private outsourcing runs through the thread.