In a ruling released yesterday, Justice Helen Winkelmann of the High Court of New Zealand has ordered the FBI to begin copying over 150TB of data from the computers seized from Kim Dotcom earlier this year as evidence for the DOJ's case against Megaupload. The ruling comes as a preemptive measure, allowing Dotcom's defense immediate access to the evidence in the event that he is extradited to the US, though whether or not the prosecution will be obligated to share details of the data has yet to be determined.

Last month judge David Harvey ruled that Dotcom's lawyers could access the information held by US prosecution as part of their defense. Despite this, the DOJ's lawyers are arguing that — under US extradition law — Dotcom's defense don't have a right to this evidence unless he appears in court. Winkelmann is arranging a two-day hearing to determine what the obligations the prosecution is required to uphold in response to these disputes.

Despite this order to copy some 150TB of data, the prosecution still hasn't addressed the outcry from legitimate users about the security of their data. Even former New York federal judge Abraham David Sofaer called the DOJ's handling of this data "outrageous."