A St. Louis PBS affiliate is suing Iron Mountain after its cloud storage partner vanished, leaving the station unable to access 50 terabytes of historic footage spanning seven decades. The lawsuit seeks immediate release of irreplaceable content, including COVID‑19 coverage and the 1993 Great Flood.

Key Takeaways

  • Nine PBS files a lawsuit against Iron Mountain to retrieve 50TB of archival data.
  • Cloud provider Open Source Storage (OSS) is unresponsive, cutting off data access.
  • The archive includes unique COVID‑19 coverage, the 1993 Great Flood, and 70 years of local history.

Details

In a complaint lodged in Denver District Court on July 28, Nine PBS alleges that its former cloud storage partner OSS used Iron Mountain’s Denver data center to host the station’s files. OSS has since gone silent, and Iron Mountain refuses to release the stored data.

The contested material comprises the station’s pandemic reporting, East St. Louis historical footage, the 1993 Great Flood documentation, and over 11,000 other files—most of which are described as “unique and irreplaceable.”

Historical Background

PBS has been a cornerstone of public education and cultural preservation for decades, with local affiliates serving as custodians of regional history. Such archives not only provide educational value but also act as a collective memory for future generations.

Why This Matters

BozokMedia analysis shows that growing reliance on third‑party cloud services heightens data‑security risks for public broadcasters, and this lawsuit could prompt stations nationwide to reassess their storage contracts.

"Losing access to archival footage undermines the public’s right to information," says media‑law expert Dr. Anshu Kumar.
Did You Know?: PBS has amassed roughly 100,000 hours of live broadcast material since the 1970s, including footage of pivotal moments in American history.

Frequently Asked Questions

  • What legal grounds does Nine PBS have? The station claims breach of data‑access agreements and invokes the public interest doctrine.
  • Could this affect public broadcasting long‑term? If the data remains inaccessible, numerous educational and historical programs could suffer permanent loss.