MegaUpload has filed a motion on Wednesday, May 30, with the District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, asking the court to dismiss the criminal copyright charges brought against the company. According to MegaUpload, the United States has no jurisdiction over the cloud-storage service, which is based in Hong Kong.
"Megaupload does not have an office in the United States, nor has it had one previously," argued MegaUpload's lawyers in their motion to toss out the charges. "Service of a criminal summons on Megaupload is therefore impossible."
Masked Piracy
The U.S. Attorney's office has accused MegaUpload founder Kim DotCom and five other people connected to the company of operating a piracy service in disguise. Meanwhile, the company's managers allegedly built their fortune by encouraging users to make illegal copies of software, music, and movies, and store that content on MegaUpload's servers. DotCom and the other defendants in the case deny these allegations, and argue that their operation was legitimate, merely offering people a means to store digital files. MegaUpload claimed it cannot be held legally responsible for what copyrights its users infringed.
No Jurisdiction
The core defense in MegaUpload's filing is the company's argument that it never had a U.S. office. Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure state clearly how to serve a criminal summons on a U.S. company, but do not "contemplate service of a criminal summons on a wholly foreign corporation without an agent or offices in the United States," MegaUpload lawyers wrote to the court, as reported by CNET.
"Wholly foreign corporations, therefore, may not be prosecuted for alleged violations of federal criminal law unless they waive service," the company wrote in its filing. "In short, a corporation such as Megaupload cannot be brought within the jurisdiction of this court for criminal proceedings absent its content."
"We'll respond at the appropriate time in court," said a spokesman for the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, who filed the charges against MegaUpload, in an email to CNET.
Extradition, Probable Cause
Lawyers for MegaUpload also asked the court to grant funds so the company could pay for a defense. Meanwhile, the United States government is working to extradite DotCom and the other defendants so they can stand trial in the U.S. DotCom and three other managers live in New Zealand and are fighting extradition, notes CNET.
"We told the court that the United States lacked probable cause to take down the entire site," said MegaUpload's worldwide defense lead attorney Ira Rothken. "It would have to hold the company criminally responsible for the acts of copyright infringement committed by its users. And there is no such thing as criminal secondary copyright infringement."
