We brought you word yesterday that the U.S. government may not have a case against file-sharing service Megaupload due to a “procedural error.” If this is true, Megaupload could be potentially let off the hook. There still remains the problem of the Megaupload data that Carpathia is hosting.

If you recall, the judge in the case told all the interested parties that they had to negotiate over what would happen to the data. This is because Carpathia can’t be responsible for the data forever and it’s costing them an arm and a leg just to keep the data. This could have been easily solved if it weren’t for the U.S. government interfering in the deal where Megaupload would buy the data off of Carpathia.

BBC is reporting that lawyers for Megaupload and the U.S. government are going to meet on April 26 to start negotiations on what should happen to the data. The news states that it’s only these two parties even though the MPAA and the EFF both have stakes in the fate of the data as well.

To recap, the U.S. government doesn’t want Megaupload to have access to their data. Kim Dotcom says it’s because the U.S. wants to deny his company the right to a fair trial. With all the weird claims and reasons as to why Dotcom shouldn’t have access to the data including claims of chid porn, it almost seems like the U.S. does have it in for ol’ Dotcom and company.

As for the other parties, the EFF wants to have the data returned to the legitimate users who have lost access to all of their data. It’s easy to forget with everything else going on, but there were plenty of small businesses and independent users who relied upon Megaupload’s services.

The MPAA wants the data retained, but not given back, for use in potential lawsuits. They feel that if the data is given back that people will use the data to pirate its studios’ content. It seems almost ridiculous that they think retaining Megaupload’s data will prevent piracy when it has already been proven that this is not the case.

Once again, the legality of the current charges brought against Megaupload are suspect. The negotiations are going to proceed, but I’m sure they will pull back if it turns out that the U.S. doesn’t have a case against Megaupload. While the damage has already been done and Dotcom is furious, he still plans on fighting to unveil what he feels is a conspiracy against his company.