Nine PBS has sued Iron Mountain in Denver District Court to recover more than 50 terabytes of archival data spanning 70 years after its cloud storage vendor abruptly cut off access earlier this year [1] [2]. The archival materials include historic coverage of events such as the COVID-19 pandemic, the history of East St. Louis, and the Great Flood of 1993 [1] [2].
Since 2019, Nine PBS contracted Open Source Storage (OSS) to handle its cloud storage needs. OSS used Iron Mountain Data Centers’ Denver facility to physically store Nine PBS's data [3] [1] [2] [4]. In February 2026, Nine PBS attempted to renew its contract with OSS, but OSS failed to respond, and on March 6, 2026, OSS abruptly cut off access to the data on the contract’s expiration date—ignoring the agreed 30-day retrieval period—before later going defunct [3] [1] [4].
Nine PBS initially sought clarity from OSS’s purported new owner, James Tramel, who briefly claimed to have acquired the company but later stated he was defrauded and ownership reverted to previous owners [3]. Meanwhile, Iron Mountain initially agreed to cooperate and turn over Nine PBS's data but later refused, asserting OSS owns the physical storage and data, not Nine PBS [3] [1] [4].
A court ruling issued on August 12 ordered Iron Mountain to preserve the data and collaborate with Nine PBS in the recovery effort, blocking any deletion or modification of the data [2] [4]. The judge affirmed Nine PBS’s right to access the archive. Nine PBS is now working with a former OSS employee willing to assist in retrieving the data within a 30-day deadline set by the court [2] [4].
Leah Freeman, VP and CCO at Nine PBS, said, "We are committed to ensuring we can recover and restore full access to this valuable content, which Nine PBS rightfully owns, as it holds significant historical importance for St. Louis" [1]. An Iron Mountain spokesperson responded, "Iron Mountain has acted appropriately and responsibly at every step to safeguard customer data and honor our contractual commitments to OSS. Throughout this process, we have been transparent with Nine PBS about our role in this dispute, that we do not have access to their data, and we have made consistent efforts to help them resolve the issue" [4].
The lawsuit’s next key milestone is the September 12 deadline by which Nine PBS must retrieve the data aided by third-party expertise, as mandated by the court [2] [4].
