The U.S. has responded to a motion to dismiss submitted a few weeks ago by two arrested operators of Z-Library. According to the prosecution, the Russian defendants are fugitives because they continue to protest their extradition to the United States. As such, they should not be allowed to request a dismissal from the U.S. judicial system they are trying to avoid.
From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.
Last fall, the U.S. Government temporarily took down Z-Library, one of the largest book piracy operations in the world.
The feds seized the site’s main domain names and arrested two alleged Russian operators of the site, who now find themselves at the center of a criminal investigation.
This enforcement action came as a shock to millions of Z-Library users but the shadow library eventually recovered and remains online today. However, that doesn’t mean that the two alleged operators are out of trouble, on the contrary.
After their arrest in Argentina, Anton Napolsky and Valeriia Ermakova remained in the country and both are actively resisting extradition to the United States.
Motion to Dismiss
In addition to the extradition proceeding, the alleged Z-Library operators also retained U.S. attorneys earlier this year. In June, these defense lawyers asked the New York federal court to dismiss the criminal indictment.
The motion argued that the allegations are not sufficient to support a criminal prosecution in New York, and that the fraud and money laundering claims are not sufficient to establish jurisdiction in the United States.
The defense also pointed out that the claims lack specificity, as they fail to allege that Napolsky and Ermakova ‘reproduced’ or ‘distributed’ books in the United States. In fact, the indictment doesn’t mention any specific copyrighted works.
U.S. Government Responds
This week, United States Attorney Breon Peace responded to the motion to dismiss. Without going into the merits, the U.S. argues that the defendants’ request should be denied because they are officially fugitives.
“The defendants are fugitives who have chosen to avoid the reach of this Court by remaining in Argentina. Until they submit to the jurisdiction of the United States, they have no ability to compel this Court to consider the present Motion—or any type of motion,” Peace writes.
The U.S. Attorney relies on the fugitive disentitlement doctrine, which aims to prevent defendants from seeking relief in a U.S. court while refusing to come to the U.S. to answer the charges against them.
The defense anticipated this counter and cited a case against French banker Muriel Bescond, where the doctrine didn’t apply. However, the U.S. argues that the Z-Library defendants are different, as they are not in their home country and actively concealed their identities.
“Unlike Bescond, the defendants were not openly doing their jobs. To the contrary, no public information tied them to Z-Library or made evident that this purported online library was run by Russian nationals relying on customer donations to enrich themselves and make personal purchases.
“Moreover, the defendants were apprehended in a remote region of Argentina and have no citizenship rights in Argentina, in stark contrast to Bescond,” the U.S. Attorney adds.
‘Merits Fail Too’
The prosecution believes that the fugitive disentitlement doctrine is sufficient to deny the motion to dismiss, without considering its merits. And if the court decides otherwise, it should be denied for a myriad of other reasons.
These include allegations that the defendant’s criminal conduct relied on U.S. companies and services.
“At trial, the government will prove that the defendants used servers in the United States to fuel their criminal copyright scheme. Without access to the computing power, bandwidth and other functions of these U.S.-based servers, the defendants could not have carried out their criminal copyright scheme.”
The U.S. Government admits that several claims are not directly tied to the Eastern District of New York. However, that doesn’t means that the case should be dismissed, it can be transferred instead.
“If the defendants are unwilling to waive venue, the government will pursue trial on Counts Three and Four in the courts where venue lies—and the defendants can face multiple trials regarding the same conduct.”
“In that case, the Court has the inherent authority to transfer the case to the appropriate districts where venue may lie,” U.S. Attorney Peace adds.
Since the parties have opposing views on the matter, the court must decide whether the motion to dismiss should be granted or not.
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A copy of the U.S. Government’s memorandum of law in opposition to the motion to dismiss is available here (pdf)
From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.
Nein, er muss nicht noch kurz die Welt retten - die eigene Familie, das reicht schon. (
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