June 12th, 2007
Judge: TorrentSpy must turn over logs in RAM
The fight for music and music distribution rights continues to drone on as the MPAA strategizes new ways to bring the illegal downloaders to justice. The latest wrinkle, reports News.com, is that a judge has ruled that evidence of an electronic trail that shows up briefly in a computer server’s RAM must be turned over as evidence during litigation.
The decision, issued by Judge Jacqueline Chooljian, a federal judge in the Central District of California, sides with the film industry against TorrentSpy, the BitTorrent search engine accused of copyright infringement.
“There can be no serious dispute that the Server Log Data in issue is extremely relevant,” said Chooljian.
The decision sets a precedent for the argument that information stored on RAM is subject to the rules of relevant, Chooljian said. The decision pokes holes in the notion of privacy that many Web sites guarantee, and Web site operators will probably have to revise their privacy policies. TorrentSpy intends to appeal.
Chooljian said that it was not her goal to set a far-reaching precedent with her decision.
“The court emphasizes that its ruling,” Chooljian said in the documents, “should not be read to require litigants in all cases to preserve and produce electronically stored information that is temporarily stored only in RAM.”
TorrentSpy argued that the law doesn’t call for the costs of tracking users were too high and that the action would violate user’s privacy and hinder free speech. All were rejected.
