A recent court ruling has advanced efforts by a St. Louis, Missouri public broadcaster to reclaim roughly one-third of its historical programming archive, which has been locked inside an Iron Mountain data center.
Since 2019, NinePBS has partnered with Colorado-based Open Source Storage (OSS) to host its program content via a hybrid model combining on-prem hardware and cloud storage resources.
Operational issues surfaced earlier this year right before the service contract’s renewal window. Nine PBS suddenly lost access to its cloud storage environment amid apparent signs of OSS’s business shutdown.
Colorado state business records show three affiliated entities operating under the Open Source Storage name. The newest entity, established in 2021, is marked as “delinquent” for failing to submit its mandatory 2025 business filings.
Nine PBS confirms its archival data resides on OSS-managed infrastructure hosted within an Iron Mountain data center in Colorado. As Iron Mountain’s direct client, OSS retained full control over the hosting account and underlying physical storage systems holding the broadcaster’s content.
The media outlet filed legal action to secure data preservation and regain full access. Per mlq.ai reporting, Iron Mountain initially declined to release the data, citing compliance risks from unauthorized data handover amid the contractual dispute.
In last week’s verdict, the presiding judge affirmed Nine PBS as the legitimate owner of the archived data and ordered Iron Mountain to cooperate with the broadcaster’s data recovery efforts. The recovery process requires a qualified third party to retrieve and migrate the data securely, without disrupting other tenant data on the shared infrastructure. Both parties are required to submit a case progress update to the court by September 14.
A Nine PBS spokesperson welcomed the ruling: “We appreciate the Court’s thorough decision, which creates a clear pathway to access and recover our lawfully owned archival materials. These records preserve critical regional history, and we are committed to safeguarding them through this court-sanctioned process.”
The station clarified that the trapped repository accounts for approximately one-third of its total historical archive.
Iron Mountain issued an official statement defending its handling of the situation: “Iron Mountain has acted responsibly and compliantly at all stages to protect client data and uphold contractual obligations to OSS. We have maintained full transparency with Nine PBS regarding our limited access to the disputed data and have consistently supported resolutions to this ongoing matter.”
Attempts to reach OSS for comment were unsuccessful. Its LinkedIn profile has remained inactive for more than a year, while the company’s official website currently displays a blank page with no functional content.
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