Most Megaupload users would not have expected to lose their files as a result of infringement by others, said Jefferson Scher, an intellectual property attorney with Carr and Ferrell.

"There's a conception that on most of these sites, the problems that are created by user A won't affect user B. This is one of the few times, other than something like Napster, which completely went out of business, where the other users really were affected. It is a bit of a surprise," said Scher.

Establishing a process to let law-abiding users retrieve their data is a good idea, he said.

And as the government continues to address digital copyright issues, he added, "there needs to be clearer criteria and consideration of the potential innocent victims before a domain is seized and a site is shut down completely."

The IDG News Service