In a court brief filed Thursday, the DOJ argued that Megaupload's claims that the servers contain important information to its defense are "pure speculation."
The EFF's Samuels suggested the DOJ may be the appropriate steward of the servers and the data. With the DOJ seizing more and more websites for copyright infringement, the agency needs to put plans in place to deal with the owners of legitimate data on those sites, she said.
"I think a lot of this chaos was of the government's making," she said.
O'Grady told all the groups to report back to him in two weeks. Further delays are inconvenient for legitimate users, but acceptable, Samuels said after the hearing.
"I didn't think Megaupload was going to get turned back on tomorrow," she said.
Grant Gross covers technology and telecom policy in the U.S. government for The IDG News Service. Follow Grant on Twitter at GrantGross. Grant's e-mail address is grant_gross@idg.com.
