A Denver court has given Nine PBS a path to recover roughly 50TB of archival programming and data from Iron Mountain Data Centers, after the St. Louis public television station lost access when its storage provider OSS went under. Tom’s Hardware reports that the order, issued August 12, establishes a process for retrieving material the outlet describes as representing 70 years of TV history. Current, in an article surfaced through Hacker News, reports that Nine PBS sued Iron Mountain on July 28 in Denver District Court seeking the return of approximately 50TB of archival material stored in a Denver data center. The core ownership question appears to have been resolved in the station’s favor. Current reports that District Court Judge Eric Elliff found Nine PBS to be the rightful owner of the materials and entitled to recover them from OSS storage systems. Tom’s Hardware similarly reports that the court ruled the station owns the data and cleared the way for retrieval from Iron Mountain. The operational problem is more complicated than ownership. According to Current, Nine PBS contracted with OSS for storage services, while Iron Mountain had a separate business relationship with OSS and housed the relevant infrastructure. Current says the complaint alleged that Iron Mountain had refused to return the station’s materials because OSS technically owned the physical systems housing the data inside Iron Mountain’s facility. Under the court-approved framework, Nine PBS is to identify a third-party vendor to help access and retrieve the archive from the infrastructure inside Iron Mountain’s Denver data center. Both Current and Tom’s Hardware report that a former OSS employee could serve in that role, and that the retrieval work is to happen within 30 days. The order also assigns costs and safeguards. Current reports that Nine PBS will pay Iron Mountain current and past-due storage fees dating from when OSS stopped paying for use of the facility. Tom’s Hardware adds that physical devices taken from the premises must be returned after retrieval, that Nine PBS must verify no other former OSS client data is accessed, and that the station must indemnify Iron Mountain against corruption of data owned by others. The court record, as described by Current, also shows why the recovery may not be straightforward. An attorney for Nine PBS said the station is seeking access to a physical cage where the data is housed and is in contact with a former OSS employee willing to help. The same attorney said the material could be in physical form, such as tapes, but if it is on a server, shutting that server down could put the archive at risk. Iron Mountain’s attorney told the judge, according to Current, that the company does not know the format of the materials OSS stored and is concerned about whether Nine PBS’ archive is mixed with data belonging to other OSS clients. That concern explains the court’s emphasis on a controlled retrieval process rather than a simple handoff. Tom’s Hardware reports that Nine PBS and Iron Mountain have been asked to provide progress updates by September 14. For now, the ruling gives the station a legal route to the archive, but the practical recovery still depends on identifying the storage format, safely separating any commingled data, and completing the retrieval under the court’s constraints. Who benefits: Nine PBS benefits most directly because the court recognized its ownership claim and created a recovery process. Iron Mountain also gets a court-defined framework for cooperation while addressing concerns about other OSS clients’ data. Who's exposed: Organizations that rely on a third-party storage broker or managed backup provider are exposed to similar access and custody risk if the intermediary fails. The case also exposes facility operators to disputes when they hold infrastructure for a failed customer whose end clients own the underlying data.