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Legally, I have no idea.
Ethically, it would be wrong. And it's pretty clearly wrong. And I think you know that.
However, if there are no backups of these files, you are under no obligation to share them with your former employer, assuming that they are entirely your work and that they knew where they were hosted. If you created them while entirely as function of your job but they chose to allow you to host them in a place where they cannot access them, you could ethically (note, still not talking legally) ask for compensation for transfering the files back to your former employer. Because it would be work related at a job you no longer have. Just like if you had a deposition for a former employer, you would also be compensated.
Knowing more of the actual situation would clear some of these issues up, but it would also be enitrely understandable if you chose not to share.
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"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." - B. Franklin
"There ought to be limits to freedom." - George W. Bush
"We have met the enemy and he is us." - Pogo
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