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In the latest twist in one of the largest Internet piracy actions brought by the U.S. Government to date, attorneys for Megaupload.com and its founder, Kim Dotcom, are challenging whether the United States had the right to bring the action waged against Megaupload and its executives this past January.

On May 30, 2012, Megaupload’s legal team filed a motion to dismiss in Virginia District Court.  The crux of the motion is that Megaupload’s due process rights were violated when the U.S. destroyed its business with a lawsuit that it never had a right to bring in the first place. Megaupload is a foreign company based in Hong Kong, and, according to its legal team, since Megaupload does not have a presence in the United States, it was not properly served with the indictment and cannot be made subject to U.S. criminal law.

Attorneys for Megaupload categorized the lawsuit as “an experiment in stretching U.S. criminal law well past the breaking point.”  Stay tuned to see how the Government responds.

<em> The case is U.S. v. Dotcom et al., case number 1:12-cr-00003, in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia.</em>

Megaupload Challenges U.S. Indictment