The last 12 months have been pretty eventful for Kim Dotcom, what with his ongoing court battle against extradition to the US, his attempts to launch a cloud-based music platform called Megabox, and the unveiling of his new Me.ga domain, which was almost immediately taken down by Gabon. In between all this, the Megaupload founder even found time to record rap songs and launch a vicious attack against Joe Biden.

But its Dotcom’s ongoing legal battles with the US Government that have really stolen the show. Following the raid on Dotcom’s mansion back in January that signaled the end of Megaupload as we know it, the wildly eccentric entrepreneur has been fighting accusations of money laundering, racketeering and copyright infringement.

How the story will pan out remains up in the air at the moment, but if the show of support given to Dotcom by his fellow countrymen is anything to go by, it might just turn out to have a happy ending. New Zealand’s largest newspaper, The New Zealand Herald, today published an editorial stating that Dotcom was “good for the country”, citing the man’s flair and his role in exposing the dodgy dealings of ACT Party politician John Banks earlier this year.

Banks, the current head of the ACT New Zealand party and also a minister in the country’s government, previously held the position of mayor of Auckland. Banks secured that particular post thanks in part to a $41,000 campaign donation from Dotcom.

However, it all turned sour following Dotcom’s arrest last January. Fearing a backlash, Banks tried to conceal the origin of Dotcom’s payments, but all he managed to do was alert investigators who promptly launched a probe into his financial dealings. Although the investigation turned up insufficient evidence for a prosecution, Bank’s reputation took a severe hammering to the point that opinion polls showed that the public held Dotcom in a far more favorable light than the politician.

“It remains to be seen whether New Zealand courts force him to face American copyright law, but he has been good for this country. He exposed things we needed to know and did so with an unfailing sense of fun,” concluded the editorial.