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TorrentSpy Must Preserve Data In RAM For MPAA
Transient writes "Reaffirming a magistrate's earlier decision, a federal judge has ordered TorrentSpy to begin keeping server logs as it defends itself against an MPAA lawsuit. In her opinion, Judge Florence-Marie Cooper interpreted federal discovery rules broadly. ' Judge Cooper took issue with TorrentSpy's argument that data in RAM is not "stored." She noted RAM's function as primary storage and that the storage of data in RAM — even if not permanently archived — makes it electronically stored information governed by federal discovery rules.' Given that TorrentSpy has limited access for users in the US, the ruling may be moot. But it does set a precedent for other, similar cases. 'Under this interpretation, any data stored in RAM could be subject to a subpoena, as at a basic level it is a "medium from which information can be obtained" just like a hard drive. '"
"Funny, the data was in there before I pulled it out of the server."
Kwisatz Haderach
Sell the spice to CHOAM
This Mahdi took Shaddam's Throne
tail -f /dev/mem > memlogs.txt
I say have fun with that one.
"Some books contain the machinery required to create and sustain universes."-Tycho
If RAM can be subject to subpoenas, and it's illegal to destroy information that may later be subpoenaed, which is my understanding is true thanks to Sarbanes-Oxley, that means that all computers used by all companies must keep a permanent record of the contents of computer RAM at any given time.
I guess it's time to buy stock in storage companies. I wonder if this also applies to cache RAM? There could be an infinite loop in there somewhere...
malloc command: can only be called with copyright permission from a mafiaa member
free command: illegal under the dmcaa
memory leaks: standard operating procedure
dangling pointers: stool pigeons
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
Comment removed based on user account deletion
She probably called and asked the Geek Squad.
In a row???
This happened to an E-Gold broker recently, which the government robbed of several heavy 6-7 figure accounts. If memory serves me well, the account holders were not guilty of anything merely "suspected" and were not convicted of anything, but their "assets" were seized and liquidated.
The reason? The broker in question is one of the few who has not yet fled to the free market of international waters. They kept their servers in the US. Lesson 1. Globalism is not just for the big boys. In fact its friendlier for little players. You, me, mom and pop downtown, we're all the ones who should incorporate abroad if we do it at all.
Lesson 2. Torrentspy should work actively with friends from abroad, preferably from some nordic country or some place not friendly to the gestapo tactics of the EU, and US, China, etc. Right now, for the time being, South America seems allright, as would a drilling platform in the middle of the ocean (or close to shore, your preference). If you choose such a path and have money, hire good security, if you don't then you'd best be a good shot, and a great swimmer, you may need to defend such a place, especially if you declare it a separate independent nation or sovereign territory. After that, with a policy of neutrality and free trade with ALL who come to you, there is a fairly good chance you may even draw some of the Linux "community" to you, especially those who seek a place to host that is not "restricted" by either the East or the West.
" What luck for rulers that men do not think" - Adolf Hitler
What? No, that switch I hit by the door as you were dragging me out in cuffs didn't turn off the power. I have no idea what that switch does. Oh, it did kill the power? They must have installed a kill-switch by accident! What kind of dumbass builders put in a kill switch in residential buildings?
How about if they have the contents of ram printed to paper every time the ram is refreshed.
The cost of paper may build up to something considerable after the first couple seconds...
Help! I'm a slashdot refugee.
"Wouldn't that apply to streams also?"
;-)
Just as long as you don't cross them.
(sorry, had to)
A cheerful little bird is sitting here singing.
Technically they're not destroying it, but electricity is (or the lack thereof). I say they should sue Zeus.
Live life to the fullest. It's not that life is short, but that you are dead for so long.
TorrentSpy has announced that to comply with the MPAA Puppet^W^W impartial judge orders, all of its servers' RAM cards will be replaced by WOM cards. WOM, or Write Only Memory, is the latest cutting edge technology designed to ease the learning curve of geek challenged courts and remain compliant with discovery demands. All digital access information to their website will be safely stored in the WOM cards, readily surrendered to the courts. TorrentSpy has also announced implementation of the Fair Use Circumvention Kit at a later date but has declined to provide further details, despite curious snickering under their breaths.
Eternity: will that be smoking, or non-smoking? I Corinthians 6:9-10
Your honor, a tiny portion RAM log of the time in question
...
2007.08.28 15:40 set bit 1243434
2007.08.28 15:40 set bit 1243435
2007.08.28 15:40 cleared bit 1243436
2007.08.28 15:40 set bit 1243437
Obviously guilty!
Maybe the judge owns stock in Seagate, WD and Hitachi?
Nothing is foolproof, fools are too ingenious. - Murphy
is what the Judge actually did to learn what RAM does and the suitable means to archive it.
Simple answer - The MPAA asked for it (no doubt doing their best not to burst out laughing), describing it as absolutely critical to making their case, with probably a snipe about how those damned pirates would try to get out of it by claiming they couldn't realistically get to it.
As for the suitable means to archive it, we don't really need to ask that here on Slashdot, because we already know the answer - You can't, in practice. In theory, you could set up a system with some sort of virtual memory transaction log, but it would run so slowly as to make subpoena-ing its contents irrelevant ("well, after a two week boot time, we've finally gotten to the login screen. We expect to have a shell session by Saturday...").
Newsflash 2008, the Amazon is being deforested to keep up with the sudden increase in demand for paper.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Who said they didn't code it in ASM? Nobody can dictate what language I am to use when writing a program. And nobody says I have to use variable names. Too bad my ASM can't do fancy stuff like macros...
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Could it be the same guy that wired that extra-heavy-duty electromagnet to get powered when the rest of the house goes black due to the kill switch?
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
People that don't know anything about a certain subject are making rules and precedents about it.
Slashdot's always been like that, though...
No, no, no... Save paper and email it to them. Each byte in a separate email. So, 11010011 would be "on on off on off off on on". Send them a 8Gb memory dump and tell them "it's in there somewhere".
`cat /dev/mem` of course. They might even still be around, depending upon your OS.
It's impossible to say because your seven line program contains at least one bug. (I'm assuming that the presented program is C and not some imaginary language).
Firstly, although you've correctly specified that main() should return an "int" you are actually returning a value of "size_t" which may or may not be defined as "int", depending on the platform. Secondly, you haven't checked the return value of fgets(). On error, fgets() returns NULL. This isn't necessarily the same as the nul character so depending on the platform, strlen() may fail (possibly even catastrophically on certain machines, such as the DeathStation 5000).
You've used the strlen() function without including its proper header.
Lastly, although this isn't really an error but it does demonstrate your inexperience, you have enclosed "buf" in parenthesis in the sizeof expression. Remember, sizeof is an operator not a function. The only reason you would ever use parenthesis in conjunction with sizeof is if you were asking for the size of a datatype. For example "sizeof(int)" or "sizeof(*char)". Using parenthesis any other time would be equivalent to expressing a simple sum as "(1) + (2) == (3)". Not incorrect, but pointless.
A more correct program might be...
Remember, C isn't for amateurs. That's why high-level languages were invented. To demonstrate how difficult it is to effectively program in C, I've deliberately left a bug in of my own as well as a potentially confusing design issue. See if you can find them.
>>The cost of paper may build up to something considerable after the first couple seconds...
;-P
that depends entirely on the font and the size of the font being used
I will not make funny comments on /., lest someone takes it serious and writes a rant. /., lest someone takes it serious and writes a rant. /., lest someone takes it serious and writes a rant. /., lest someone takes it serious and writes a rant. /., lest someone takes it serious and writes a rant. /., lest someone takes it serious and writes a rant. /., lest someone takes it serious and writes a rant. /., lest someone takes it serious and writes a rant. /., lest someone takes it serious and writes a rant. ...
I will not make funny comments on
I will not make funny comments on
I will not make funny comments on
I will not make funny comments on
I will not make funny comments on
I will not make funny comments on
I will not make funny comments on
I will not make funny comments on
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.