14 DAY TRIAL // The case against Kim Dotcom and MegaUpload is looking increasingly weak. The New Zealand High Court has found that the warrant used to raid Dotcom's house was illegal. What's more, having data taken from the house handed over to the FBI was also illegal.
What this means is that the FBI won't be able to use the data copied from the raid against MegaUpload and Kim Dotcom.
However, all of the data will be reviewed by a court-appointed lawyer and the things deemed relevant to the case could be shared with both the prosecutors and Dotcom's defense team.
The warrants used in the raid, in which New Zealand's anti-terrorist squad broke into Dotcom's mansion and some 70 police officers were present, did not specify the charges brought against Dotcom and as such were deemed invalid by the judge.
This is a big deal, but it remains to be seen how much it impacts the FBI's case against Dotcom. The judge also said that the FBI shouldn't have been handed the data copied from hard drives seized during the raid.
Dotcom had a veritable mini data center at home and 150 terabytes worth of data were seized. The FBI proceeded to clone the hard drives and have the data shipped to the US. New Zealand laws forbid this, but that's not going to stop the FBI in its crusade.
The judge ordered any cloned data that has not left New Zealand to stay there. All of the seized data will be reviewed by the court. Anything that is not relevant to the case will be returned to Dotcom.
The big question now is whether the judge will rule that the illegally obtained evidence can or can't be used against Dotcom. This will be ruled on July 4. Separately, it remains to be seen whether the illegal police action will result in any sort of penalty. Of course, the decision has every chance of being appealed, so it's way too early to celebrate a victory.