Re: Good on Microsoft
"MS USA has indirect control over the data, in that they can tell the Irish company to hand it over, but the Irish company can only act within the laws of Ireland."
They control the subsidiary, therefore they control the data. That's the view of the US court, and that's what we're talking about here. You're talking about the laws of Ireland and an Irish subsidiary that isn't in court - the parent company is...
At the risk of repeating myself here - the US court could have gone through the correct channels (MLAT) and had the required info by now. The fact that they haven't would tend to suggest
(a) somebody's on a fishing expedition,
(b) somebody obtained a piece of evidence illegally and now they need to cover their tracks from a procedural point of view to avoid embarrassment (as in the recent Stingray case in Baltimore*)
(c) they want to create some kind of precedent.
* http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/baltimore-city/bs-md-ci-stingray-officer-contempt-20141117-story.html