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MegaUpload lawsuits postponed yet again (again)
By Chris Cooke | Published on Monday 30 March 2020
Somehow it’s nearly six months since the MegaUpload lawsuits in the US courts were put on hold for another six months. Which means, of course, it’s time to put the the MegaUpload lawsuits in the US courts on hold for another six months.
The major labels and Hollywood studios sued MegaUpload all the way back in 2014, two years after the file-transfer and video-sharing platform was shut down by the American authorities. The music and movie companies want to access some mega damages for all the copyright infringement that MegaUpload allegedly enabled.
However, it was decided early on that it would be better if that litigation occurred after the criminal case against MegaUpload and its former leadership, including founder Kim Dotcom, had gone through the motions.
Ever since 2012, the US authorities have been trying to extradite Dotcom and his former colleagues from their current base in New Zealand so that they can face various criminal charges in relation to their old business.
Navigating the extradition process has proven very time consuming. In the main the New Zealand courts have ruled that there are grounds for extraditing Dotcom et al in this case, but the former MegaUpload team still have further routes of appeal.
At various points over the last six years MegaUpload’s lawyers have returned to the courts in Virginia where the civil lawsuits were filed requesting that that litigation remain on hold. Last time the court pushed things back to April 2020. In a new legal filing, the cases will now be on hold until at least October 2020.
So, see you back here in October for when the cases get pushed back yet another six months. I might just set this story to automatically re-publish itself with a couple of dates changed.
