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Printz Board from bringing samples of tracks back from Roundhead Studios. The dining room area in 5H was also converted into a cross between a work station and a makeshift recording studio. Dotcom's chair — larger than the others — sat at the top of the table, facing a large television screen which had the necessary software for tweaking and working the electronica album. It seemed an odd pursuit, when so much else needed to be done, but the music would have its uses.

It was an odd settling in period, during which the reality of the situation was absorbed. The Dotcoms' plans for their twins to be born in Hong Kong were undone by the arrest — they were getting used to the idea of an Auckland City Hospital birth.

The lack of internet access inhibited defence preparations, as seen when Dotcom called up iTunes to show off the latest efforts cobbled together between the recording equipment at home and what Printz Board had done in the studio. The song would come up, but only after dismissing the error message: “iTunes could not connect to the iTunes Store.”

Dotcom delighted in the music, which was slowly becoming a weapon in his far-reduced arsenal. He'd turn up the latest mixes full volume, bass pounding through the house. “This is going to be number one around the world,” he shouted over the latest cut of “Welcome To The Good Life”. The lyrics captured the life he had — not the one he was living: “Sleep all day, party all night / have whatever you want, whenever you like.” There was an outrageous irony to the fact the man accused of the world's greatest ever theft of copyright would spend his time awaiting trial making his own music. “This is what I am doing now,” says Dotcom. “I'm an artist!” He finds another song: “Listen to the lyric,” he says, over-excited, turning it up. The line — “You don't need no copyright to dance” — booms through the kitchen.

The release from prison also saw efforts to slow the US blitzkrieg. The ferocity of the raid, the blizzard of legal orders and the inability to organise a defence in the normal way had left the Megaupload team at a serious disadvantage. There were, almost immediately, so many fronts on which the battle should be fought that it was a struggle in itself to choose the right one. The most obvious was the avenue which would provide fuel to fight the others — the legal order which was made restraining the Megaupload funds. If it could be unlocked, then the money would be made available to pay for legal battles in New Zealand and other courts.

On the day of the raid, Simpson Grierson had been told there was a filing error. The law allowed for an order from another country to be placed on funds in New Zealand believed to be the proceeds of criminal acts so that those funds could not be accessed. The authorities had done this, depriving the Megaupload team of access to cash to fund their

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