Search and Surveillance Bill 2009 108 (j) (i): "Every search power authorises the person exercising it to use any reasonable measures to create a forensic copy of any material in such a computer system or other data storage device."
Yeah, it might appear that the NZ Police would have been authorized to make a legal copy but that is not what happened. The FBI where left in a room with the evidence and before the NZ Police officer got back to the room they took copies and left, without telling the officer, and shipped the cloned hard drives back to the USA via FedEX.
The FBI has clearly broken the sovereign rights of New Zealand here and also failed to comply with a New Zealand court procedure that demanded that the defense would be granted a court hearing to decide if the FBI would be given any rights at all to the data. The FBI agents should be charged with an offense and NZ should demand they be extradited back to New Zealand for a court hearing to face charges of illegal copyright infringement and contempt of court.
No evidence was made unavailable to the defense.
In fact that is exactly what has happened in this case. Before the extradition hearing due in August the FBI instructed the NZ Police and Crown Law office to argue in court that the defense should not have access to any existence. The latest ruling by the judge overruled the FBI's request and said that under the New Zealand Bill of Rights the defense should have access to all the information that has to date been denied to them.
"Ada is PL/I trying to be Smalltalk. -- Codoso diBlini