Busy Week for P2P Law - Damages Awarded in Atlantic v. Howell
There's a term we lawyers use: "spoliation." In normal terms that means destroying (or allowing to be destroyed) evidence that is relevant to pending or foreseeable litigation. In even more blunt terms, it means: the stupidest thing you can do if you're being sued by the RIAA and you're moving in a winning direction.
As I discussed several months ago, a federal court in Arizona had handed a significant setback to the RIAA in their case against Jeffrey Howell for sharing copyrighted music with KaZaA. So how did Howell follow up his small victory? He destroyed evidence that he was expressly instructed to preserve by deleting KaZaA from his computer, removing all shared files, reformatting the drive and using software to wipe the drive. That will quickly turn your fortunes around. Howell was just ordered to pay nearly $41,000 to the RIAA - a damage award that may never have been had he simply followed the court's directive.
More details at Ars Technica.
As I discussed several months ago, a federal court in Arizona had handed a significant setback to the RIAA in their case against Jeffrey Howell for sharing copyrighted music with KaZaA. So how did Howell follow up his small victory? He destroyed evidence that he was expressly instructed to preserve by deleting KaZaA from his computer, removing all shared files, reformatting the drive and using software to wipe the drive. That will quickly turn your fortunes around. Howell was just ordered to pay nearly $41,000 to the RIAA - a damage award that may never have been had he simply followed the court's directive.
More details at Ars Technica.
Labels: atlantic v. howell, copyright infringement, intellectual property law, p2p file sharing, spoliation
posted by Doug P at
8:32 AM
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