It appears several parties want Megaupload's data preserved, but no entity has stepped up so far to pay for it. Carpathia is asking the court for permission to lease the servers to new clients.

Some of the servers located in Canada were actually seized by law enforcement, while in the U.S., agents copied data but left the hardware, according to the filing.

Megaupload wants the data saved for its defense and in the chance that it can be returned to its customers, many of whom claim they used the file-sharing site for legitimate purposes. The Electronic Frontier Foundation, an advocacy group for digital rights and privacy, wants the data preserved for the same reason.

The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) also wants it. The MPAA said in a letter to Carpathia included with the court filing that it may have civil claims against Megaupload and "potentially also against those who have knowingly and materially contributed to the infringement occurring through Megaupload". U.S. government prosecutors have said they don't need the data anymore, another letter in the filing said.

Carpathia's lawyers argued in the filing that the parties with an interest in the data should pay for the storage.