[Infowarrior] - U.S forces maintain fire against Megaupload

[Richard Forno]

U.S forces maintain fire against Megaupload

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/07/30/megaupload_pursuit_unrelenting/

MPAA labels Dotcom as career crim (for piracy, not rapping)

By Natalie Apostolou • Get more from this author

Posted in Public Sector, 30th July 2012 01:02 GMT

The United States government is holding firm against the pursuit of file sharing platform Megaupload and its founders stating that even if the indictment of the Megaupload corporation is dismissed, it will continue the indefinite freeze on it’s assets.

During a federal hearing in the U.S last Friday, prosecutors urged U.S. District Judge Liam O'Grady to uphold their charges against infamous file-hosting site Megaupload.

Megaupload’s team have been arguing to dismiss the indictment as they posit that criminal procedure does not allow a way to serve notice on corporations that do not have a US address. Judge Liam O'Grady did not issue a ruling.

Founder Kim Dotcom received a reprieve from the New Zealand courts earlier this month with the delay of his extradition hearing until 2013, based on his legal team argument that the court violated the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure by failing to mail a summon to their client's last known address in the United States.

Team Megaupload also maintain that U.S. prosecutors have no legal jurisdiction over the company as it is a foreign entity with no official presence in the United States.

"They wiped out a foreign company that does not reside in the United States by bringing a criminal case against it. If this were a person ... there would be little argument that there were due process violations," Megaupload lawyer William Burck said during Friday's hearing.

Burck requested that Judge O'Grady dismiss the indictment without prejudice and force the Department of Justice to re-file charges.

The U.S prosecutors claimed that mailing summons to the offices of Dotcom's U.S based lawyers or to Megaupload’s Virginia based hosting supplier Carpethia Hosting was sufficient process.

They added that under a Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty they would also be able to send a summons to Megaupload's address in Hong Kong.

The Justice Department's Ryan Dickey said that Congress has "made it crystal clear" that they will address global copyright crime and that they would be relentless in the pursuit of Dotcom and his employees with criminal charges whenever they are extradited to the United States.

Last week, the Motion Picture Association of America branded Dotocm a “career criminal” and claimed that even if the case against Megaupload were dismissed it would have little practical impact as Dotocom and his co-founders are still facing indictment.

Dotcom remains under house arrest in his New Zealand mansion where he waging an aggressive social media campaign against the MPA and the U.S government’s actions. ®
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