A US judge has given Kim Dotcom’s lawyers the green light to fight to have charges against his Megaupload company thrown out.
The judge, however, deferred a decision on whether the users of piracy-accused website Megaupload.com should be able to get their data back, saying more consideration is needed.
Their argument has been bolstered by this week's High Court ruling that the raid on Dotcom's mansion was illegal.
Lawyer Ira Rothken says a Virginia judge has allowed the defence counsel to pursue an application to have charges dismissed.
“We’ve provided a briefing schedule that closes on July 18 and indicated there will be all arguments shortly thereafter,” he says.
The judge also indicated hearings may be held to enable consumer access to Megaupload data.
The company, headed by New Zealand-based German millionaire Kim Dotcom, hosts millions of gigabytes of data, including material allegedly infringing copyrights.
The US is attempting to extradite Dotcom and three others who were arrested in New Zealand in January to face racketeering, copyright and money laundering charges.
Megaupload user Kyle Goodwin appeared in a Virginia court on Friday (US time) to argue that the US government should create a mechanism to allow users to retrieve their data from the website, Bloomberg reports.
District Judge Liam O'Grady deferred his decision, saying "we'll look at it a little further and issue an order shortly".
Megaupload is no longer paying for the 1100 servers, which hold the website's data, including movies and TV shows protected by copyright, but wants the files preserved for evidence.
At an earlier court hearing, the company that owns the servers sought guidance about what to do with the files.
In a blow to the case, a New Zealand judge on Thursday ruled that the search warrants used to raid Dotcom's mansion in Coatesville, near Auckland, were illegal.
Justice Helen Winkelmann ruled the search warrants executed were too broad and police exceeded their powers in seizing what they did.
She also said it was unlawful for copies of Dotcom's computer files to be taken by US authorities and New Zealand police should return copies to the German-born founder of Megaupload.
Crown Law issued a statement yesterday afternoon, saying a remedies hearing will be held to determine the consequences for the crown and what will happen to the items seized in the raid.
Dotcom's next court date in New Zealand is on Wednesday in the High Court at Auckland.
NZN/RadioLIVE