On Wednesday in New Zealand, a Court of Appeal ruled that the warrants used to seize property belonging to Megaupload founder and CEO Kim Dotcom were legal. The court's decision reversed a 2012 High Court decision in which a chief judge ruled that the warrants were too vague and did not define the parameters of the search and seizure sufficiently.

Since the raid on his New Zealand property in January 2012, Kim Dotcom has been waging legal battles with New Zealand and United States authorities. As Ars reported in 2012, New Zealand police cut their way through locks and into Dotcom's 'panic room,' seized 18 luxury vehicles, secured NZ$11 million in cash from his bank accounts, and grabbed 150TB of data from 135 of Dotcom's digital devices.

Dotcom's legal challenge of the warrants used to seize his property was part of a bid to avoid extradition to the United States where he is wanted to stand trial for copyright and money laundering charges.

In today's ruling, “The court acknowledged there were 'defects' in the warrants, but found these were 'in form not in substance,'” wrote the New Zealand Herald. "The defects in these warrants were therefore not so radical as to require them to be treated as nullities." Dotcom was also ordered to pay 60 percent of the government's legal fees for the appeal.

It wasn't all bad news for Dotcom's camp, however. The Court of Appeal (PDF) did not overturn one part of the High Court decision, which said that New Zealand authorities were wrong to give copies of Dotcom's digital devices to the FBI after they had seized the data. Rather, the New Zealand police ignored the direction “that the seized items, which included mobile phones, USB sticks, and computers, were to remain in the custody and control of the [New Zealand] Commissioner of Police until further direction,” the New Zealand Herald wrote.

In a separate case in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, Kim Dotcom's lawyers have argued that the warrants that the US obtained to revoke Dotcom's domain names were illegal because the US “planted” evidence on his Megaupload servers. The US has denied that accusation.

In December, US authorities published a 191-page “summary of evidence” against Dotcom, which details why the US believes he should serve jail time. On Twitter, Kim Dotcom's lawyer, Ira Rothken, said Dotcom's legal team was “analyzing today's court of appeal ruling” and had no additional comment.