Megaupload: Music industry lawsuits have been placed on dormant

The police action against Megaupload was more than a decade ago, but the legal processing of the case is still ongoing. In part, however, the cause is now being put on the back burner, because due to a lack of developments, civil lawsuits are being put on hold.

On January 19, 2012, the operators of Megaupload were arrested in New Zealand, the best-known name here was and is Kim Dotcom. Born in Germany, he has been fighting extradition to the United States for eleven years, which affects the criminal allegations against the founder of the service, which is mainly used for illegal file sharing.

Parallel to the criminal law cases, civil law cases are also pending against Megaupload, which the music industry, among others, has filed through its industry representatives. In the music industry’s case, this is a joint lawsuit brought by the US Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and the British Music Publishers Association (MPA).

More than the previous biennial shift

However, the civil proceedings cannot begin before the criminal proceedings. But the latter is dragging on as it is tied to the delivery of Kim Dotcom. How TorrentFreak reported, the civil proceedings have now been set to “inactive”. According to a court document, “Defendant Megaupload hereby requests the issuance of the attached Proposal to extend the stay in this matter for an additional six months, subject to the conditions set forth in the Proposed Resolution.” There were no objections from the RIAA and MPA.

As you can read from the text above, this is basically not a one-off or first-time event, but rather something of a tradition. Because this postponement is carried out twice a year, and has been since 2014. However, there is currently a significant difference to previous applications of this type. Because the case has so far remained in the active directory, it is currently only available by order of Judge Anthony J. Trenga marked as inactive.

The judge is reacting to the lack of any new developments. Because it could be years before a final decision on an extradition of dotcoms is made, and the criminal proceedings could take another decade.

Summary