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P2P Defendant Destroys Evidence, Case Defaults

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the wrong-ways dept.

neoflexycurrent writes "A court in Texas has thrown the book at a defendant accused by the RIAA of file sharing. The court determined that she had intentionally wiped her hard drive clean, so it entered the most severe sanction possible — default judgment against her. The record companies now just have to ask the court how much they want in damages."

2 of 813 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Stupid? by StrongGlad · · Score: 5, Informative

    The record companies' expert witness examined her hard drive, and somehow determined that two "disk-cleaner utility programs" (as the court put it) had been used to delete data intentionally. Specifically, he noted that iMesh and BearShare were installed at one time, and were configured to use the handle, "ugotburnedby21".

    The defendant's own expert witness, who also examined the hard drive, conceded that data had been deleted, but suggested that a defrag utility was to blame. The court didn't buy this explanation, however.

    If you're interested, read the court's order (please be gentle with my server :-).

  2. Re:Stupid? by gweihir · · Score: 5, Informative

    The record companies' expert witness examined her hard drive, and somehow determined that two "disk-cleaner utility programs" (as the court put it) had been used to delete data intentionally. Specifically, he noted that iMesh and BearShare were installed at one time, and were configured to use the handle, "ugotburnedby21".

    Stupid. If there was anything left to find, or anything hat pointed to when the wiping was done, then the disk was not wiped. More likely this person only wiped specific folders. To say it again: You have to wipe the complete drive. You have to sacrifice your installation. Only then will no evidence be left and no evidence that can tell when the drive was wiped.

    Of course this usually applies to protecting confidential data, such as when giving old drives to charity, selling them or discarding them without physical destruction. The "destruction of evidence" is a minor application, but illustrates well what can happen if you use sloppy security procedures.

    --
    Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.