By: Mike Hosking | Monday, October 15, 2012 8:06 AM

We’re seeing an interesting lesson in human nature over the Dotcom story. We’re at the point where people are making their mind up over whether this is a scandal or just a story that's gone on way too long and has as they say in the trade ‘the fatigue factor’.

For my part I am amused at the life it has had. In very simple terms, Dotcom has caused a mile more trouble than he should have. The arrest charges and various court appearances have the look of a circus. There seems little doubt there is incompetence in the spy business. There seems little doubt that it's a worry that our spy agency leaks. There’s little surprise that the opposition parties are trying to milk it for easy points. But beyond that I am over it. I’m bored by it.

I don't think there’s anything in the John Key connection in the sense I believe Key is an honest man and what he heard at briefings and when he heard them is little more than the tidal wave of information that any prime minister would have on any given matter at any given time. It’s like you asking me about an interview I did and when I did it and what the question line was and how long it lasted. And when I couldn't recall or I got the facts wrong you’re looking at me as though I have something to hide as opposed to merely being a person who does a lot of interviews and after a while the fine detail tends to blur.

But the fatigue factor is an interesting thing. Does an important story stop being important simply because we get over it? Does it become less important if it’s too complex to truly follow the detail of as each new strand is added to the story and it’s reiterated every time it’s told so as we can keep up with it? Does it lose its level of importance because it’s become so long winded were out of puff ?

The Dotcom saga is at that stage. What’s important about the story is what he does and whether the Americans have it right in doing what they've done to him that's got all sorts of implications around it. But we wouldn't be even slightly interested in that aspect of the story if it hadn’t played out here and that's the bit that's been milked too hard. The Banks connection was damaging, the spy agency connection was damaging, the Key connection was intriguing but it has run out of steam. But the accumulation of all that material piled on top of each other day after day has seen us end up with a story so large and containing now more point scoring and bluster than actual fact and interest.

So we’re left with a mountainous pile of detail so complex, so derailed, so politicised that most of us have Dotcom fatigue.

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