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a community has stitched together the fabric of American society . . . What’s at stake as we face these challenges is nothing short of the preservation and renewal of this quintessentially American communal tradition.”

That tradition was being ably protected in New Zealand. On 12 April 2011, it passed a law in line with earlier US demands around copyright protection. Dubbed the “SkyNet” law, after the malign world-ruling computer in the Terminator films, it gave copyright holders the ability to seek sanctions as severe as removing internet access against repeat infringers. Eaton — the MPAA’s representative in New Zealand — said New Zealand had “one of the highest rates of peer-to-peer infringement in the world”. It was a provocative statement, in light of the US position that this was now an issue of national security.

It was an issue, one would have thought, that would have weighed on the minds of those in power.

Dotcom, meanwhile, was being even more deeply enmeshed in the New Zealand bureaucratic process while trying to buy a home. Foreigners needed approval from the Overseas Investment Office (OIO) — which happened by April 5 2011 — and to proceed required only for Power and Lands Minister Maurice Williamson to add their permission. The advice given to ministers included a briefing from OIO officials about the FBI interest — information which had been passed on by Immigration NZ.

Williamson was also alerted to Dotcom’s interest from another quarter. As the Lands Minister later told Parliament: “Mr Banks said Mr Dotcom had been a good friend to Auckland City and had paid for a very large fireworks display.” Williamson followed officials’ advice and signed off on 7 April 2011. Power waited until 18 July 2011 and then declined. One of his staff rang the Prime Minister’s deputy chief of staff, Phil de Joux, to tell him the application had been refused. A few days later, Williamson also changed his mind and rejected the mansion purchase application.

July was a month which saw multiple strands come together. Rather than a grand conspiracy, it illustrates the amount of heat building around Dotcom, his activities and the areas in which Megaupload’s interests brushed up against governments and their interests.

Some of those contracts were overt and directly related to the Megaupload case. The Crown Law Office was formally contacted about the FBI’s investigation into Megaupload. The Crown’s legal advisors recorded their first work on the case being done on 14 July 2011. As the Minister of Justice’s signature is required to complete an extradition, it is possible Power’s office was notified. He won’t confirm and left

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