The US also argued that if the order was not suspended it would not be able to comply because the 21 day time period was too brief. According to the US submission the process of providing forensic images of New Zealand data not already copied will take a minimum of two and a half months. Furthermore, the US argued it was unable to provide readable copies of the items it has imaged as much of the content was encrypted.

But in her judgement Justice Winkelmann said that the respondents (Dotcom, Batato, Ortmann and van der Kolk) were seeking a clone of the encrypted drive and that the absence of passwords provided no barrier to this.

On the timing issue, if a complete stay were issued, the extradition hearing date would "inevitably be lost."

"Whilst it is certainly possible that, given the issues that remain outstanding between the parties, the 6 August 2012 date will be jeopardised, the applicant, as the prosecuting party, must accept an obligation to do all that it can to maintain that date," Winkelmann said.

Winkelmann said she was therefore satisfied that a compromise suggested by Dotcom's lawyer Willie Akelman was the "appropriate resolution".