FBI Did Not Steal Megaupload Evidence Because It's "Digital"?

by Ernesto, TorrentFreak
Jun. 08, 2012

In New Zealand Dotcom’s legal team continues the battle over data that was seized from his home.

Dotcom’s lawyer Mr. Akel argues that the FBI illegally copied data from his computers, to send it to the U.S.

“The first [copies] were sent without the New Zealand Police having any say in it whatsoever,” he said quoted by Stuff.

“If [they] went offshore without the consent of the attorney-general, it was an illegal act.”

However, according to Crown’s lawyer, no harm was done because the evidence in question is “not physical” and therefore not covered by the relevant legislation.

“[Information] may be the most valuable thing we have, but it is not scooped up by the act,” he said. “Nothing of the physical items have gone overseas and that was our undertaking.”

A strange but interesting argument, since the entire case against Megaupload is built on evidence that’s not physical.

Whether Judge Winkelmann will agree with this argument has yet to be seen.