Justice Gilbert of the High Court has given permission for the livestreaming of proceedings in the appeal by Kim Dotcom and three others against the District Court decision allowing their extradition to the United States.

Justice Gilbert has allowed the livestreaming on the condition that it is subject to a 20-minute delay to prevent any evidence which is subject to suppression orders being made public.

The livestream may only show the proceedings and the footage must be removed when the proceedings - set down for six weeks - end.

The stream, on YouTube has had 15,102 views by 2pm on Thursday, 1 September 2016. The "Comments" facility has been disabled.

In granting the application by Mr Dotcom, Justice Gilbert was not happy that it was applied for just before the trial started. However, he said it could be allowed if supported by media companies.

It is the first time a New Zealand court has allowed livestreaming. The In-Court Media Coverage Guidelines 2015 state that all matters relating to in-court media coverage are at the discretion of the court.

While the Guidelines do not specifically address livestreaming, the "Standard conditions for film" in Schedule 2 state that only one camera may be situated in a courtroom. Newshub reports that Mr Dotcom is providing his own camera, instead of piggybacking off a feed shared by MediaWorks and TVNZ.