Depicting Dotcom as a sweating Dr Evil was clearly in line with the police’s PR needs, but as Judge David McNaughton remarked, no evidence has been presented that Dotcom has done anything wrong, and there “appears to be an arguable defence at least in respect of the breach of copyright charges”. The public is asked to be content with allegations by the FBI, which include conspiracy to commit racketeering and money-laundering. We would not be the first to note that copyright infringement, the central charge against Dotcom, does not carry a heavy enough maximum penalty to trigger the provisions of an extradition treaty.

Very pleased to see some push-back on the narrative, I was beginning to think the NZ media, no doubt as overjoyed as the Police to have something so exciting to be involved with, had swallowed the story whole.