A ruling is awaited from a US judge after a hearing in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia on Friday US time in the case involving the file-share website Megaupload.
Lawyers for Megaupload have asked Judge Liam O'Grady to dismiss the criminal case against the Hong Kong-based company because the Department of Justice seized the company's website and assets without serving it with the charges.
The judge didn't rule on Megaupload's motion, but said the case involved several interesting issues, IDG News reported.
Lawyers representing Megaupload said the failure to mail a summons to their client's last known address in the US violated Federal rules of civil procedure.
They argued that US prosecutors have no legal jurisdiction over Megaupload since the company is a foreign entity, Courthouse News Service reported.
"They wiped out a foreign company that does not reside in the US by bringing a criminal case against it," said Megaupload's lawyer William Burck. "If this were a person... there would be little argument that there were due process violations."
US prosecutors argued that Megaupload should remain a defendant.
The Justice Department's Ryan Dickey said Congress was addressing global copyright crime.
"The heart of [this] issue is whether a foreign defendant... can commit crimes in the US... and never be brought to justice," he said.
Marc Miller, the Motion Picture Association of America's senior vice President for internet content protection, said ahead of the hearing that even if the court accepts the motion to dismiss the charges against the company, the individual defendants, including Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom, will still face copyright, money laundering and racketeering charges.
"Lets see if the Judge will respect current law or if the Department of Justice will gain new powers never intended by the US Congress. We will know soon," Dotcom tweeted on Saturday.
News home