Last year, the makers of the superhero film Hellboy (HB Productions) filed a lawsuit against torrent site MKVCage at a Hawaii federal court. The movie company accused the site and its operator of promoting and distributing pirated copies of the movie while demanding an end to the activity.

The lawsuit had an almost immediate effect as MKVCage became unreachable soon after the case went public. At the same time, the uploader stopped pushing torrents to other sites as well. This meant that part of the plan had succeeded, but HB Productions wanted more. The company argued that the torrent site caused irreparable damage and demanded compensation from the alleged brains behind the operation, a Pakistani man named Muhammad Faizan.

Since Faizan didn't show up in court, the movie company's attorney Kerry Culpepper requested a default judgment. First, he demanded $270,000 but after the court raised questions about the calculation, this figure was lowered to $150,000. However, the amount wasn't the only problem.

The Hawaii federal court also questioned whether the defendant, who didn't put up a defense, could actually be sued in a US Court. According to Magistrate Judge Kenneth J. Mansfield, this is not the case. In a recommendation to the court, issued in September, Mansfield concluded that the filmmakers failed to show that MKVCage's activities were expressly aimed at the United States. In addition, the defendant's contacts with the US were insufficient to invoke nationwide jurisdiction.

Hellboy's attorney objected to this conclusion, listing the many connections between the site and the US. For example, MKVCage used the services of companies such as Namecheap, Twitter and Cloudflare, targeted ads at US visitors, and has a DMCA policy that is rooted in US law.

This week, US District Court Judge Michael Seabright had the final say in the matter. Based on the arguments presented, he concludes that a US court doesn't have jurisdiction over the Pakistani defendant.

"[T]he court concludes that Plaintiff failed to demonstrate that Defendant's activities were expressly aimed at the United States or Hawaii. Thus, Plaintiff failed to show that Defendant's contacts are sufficient to invoke nationwide jurisdiction," Judge Seabright writes.

Based on the evidence provided, the court can't conclude that the defendant expressly aimed his infringing activities at the United States or Hawaii. As a result, the request for a default judgment including $150,000 in damages is denied.

Judge Seabright didn't end the case completely, however. Because the denial is in part based on new jurisdiction, Hellboy is allowed to file an amended complaint next month. If that doesn't happen, the case will be dismissed.

Hellboy's attorney Kerry Culpepper hasn't decided yet what the next step will be. Amending the complaint is an option, but the Appeal Court as well, as there's a related case with a similar outcome which he would like to fight as well.

"We are considering amending the complaint or requesting leave to immediately appeal to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals jointly with 42 Ventures, LLC since the issues of these two cases are related and open a potential black hole for all intellectual property holders," Culpepper says.

MKVCage, meanwhile, remains offline and the similarly-named uploader has abandoned his accounts on other torrent sites as well.