[tehwalrus]

In this case, the videotape also contains a lot of peoples' personal files that they were hoping to get back one day, maybe.

(Pre-emptive edit: I'm not saying the host should have to take losses for this; the investigators should have been responsible for paying for/backing up the 3rd party data.)

[Cthulhu_]

More analogy, what if it was one of those storage space services and one customer rented half the storage units to store other people's stuff, then got arrested and no longer paid for the storage units. And the storage units were gold-plated and cooled and cost a fixed amount a minute they're used.