It has been a busy couple of months in the world of music file-sharing litigation. The latest comes to us courtesy of Sony BMG, which is the lead plaintiff in the case of Sony BMG et al v. Arellanes. Sony was dealt a setback by the court yesterday, as Judge Richard Schell ruled that the defendant’s hard drive can only be examined by a neutral forensics expert, not the RIAA’s own experts.
We’ve reported on Sony v. Arellanes before. Kimberly Arellanes was sued by the RIAA in August 2005 after—surprise—MediaSentry found music files shared by someone using an IP address that the ISP identified as belonging to the defendant at the time.
As the defendant is disputing Sony’s allegations of copyright infringement, the record labels wanted to examine her hard drive for evidence supporting their case. Requests for forensic examinations are understandable and have even gotten defendants into trouble, as was the case for one who violated a judge’s order by using secure file-deletion software to wipe her hard drive.
Arellanes doesn’t trust her hard drive with the RIAA’s experts. In a motion opposing the RIAA’s request, she accused the RIAA of pursing “a campaign of secrecy and intimidation” against those accused of file sharing, noting that the labels have a history of “refusing to dismiss unfounded cases until the 11th hour.”
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- Woman forces US record industry to drop file-sharing case
- RIAA Member Objects to Suppressing Evidence in Tenenbaum Case
- RIAA doesn’t like independent experts
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if citizens in canada ever need to have their hard drives scanned in a lawsuit i have a friend who has a program that can do 35 passes and turn your hard drive to all zeros so that even RIAA`s forensic team couldnt get anything off of it so ha ha ha
so what happend to the person who used the secure delete program? im sure they “destroyed evidence” but can they prove that there was evidence destroyed?