MPAA and RIAA’s Megaupload Lawsuits Remain on Hold
A federal court in Virginia has granted Megaupload's request to keep the cases filed by the music and movie companies on hold until April next year. Since all crucial data on Megaupload's servers was preserved earlier this year, the MPAA and RIAA have no objections against the stay, which was triggered by slow progress in the criminal case.
More than half a decade has passed since Megaupload was shut down and it’s still unclear how the criminal proceedings will unfold.
Aside from Andrus Nomm’s plea deal, progress in the criminal proceedings has been slow.
Earlier this year there was some movement when the New Zealand High Court ruled that Kim Dotcom and his former colleagues can be extradited to the US. This extradition would not be on copyright grounds, but for conspiracy to defraud.
Following the ruling, Dotcom and his former colleagues quickly announced they would take the matter to the Court of Appeal. This process is still pending and may take several more months to complete.
While all parties await the outcome, the criminal case in the United States remains pending. The same goes for the civil cases launched by the MPAA and RIAA in 2014.
Since the civil cases may influence the criminal proceedings, Megaupload’s legal team previously managed to put these cases on hold, and last week they requested another extension.
This is not the first time that such a request had been made. There have been several extensions already.
At the time of the last request, there were concerns that the long delays could result in the destruction of evidence, as some of Megaupload’s hard drives were starting to fail. However, after the parties agreed on a solution to back-up and restore the files, this is no longer an issue.
“With the preservation order in place, and there being no other objection, Defendant Megaupload hereby moves the Court to enter the attached proposed order, continuing the stay in this case for an additional six months,” Megaupload’s legal team informed the court this week.
Without any objections from the MPAA and RIAA, U.S. District Court Judge Liam O’Grady swiftly granted Megaupload’s request to stay both lawsuits until April next year.
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