Why bother when New Zealand's pathetic politicians, police and spy apparatus are more than happy to try and impress with Hollywood theatrics. Even the PM is involved is the bs that happened. Just the idea that the US might like an arrest or some data gets the current crop excited enough to break several laws.

Because the NSA would rather use the data for more important things, like terrorism, war, and espionage of foreign governments. Even if just for public perception, I don't think anybody, NSA included, really wants the NSA to use its dragnet surveillance to prevent people from downloading DVD rips of Avatar.

In all likelihood, that's exactly what happened: The FBI, or some other US agency illegally obtained information from the MU servers without a warrant. They ordered the raid to seize information that could be used to prove the crime after the fact.