Interesting look at RIAA v Jeffrey Howell
p2pnet news view | RIAA News:- Yesterday, we posted an item saying a judge found Jeffrey Howell, who’d kept about 2,000 music recordings on his PC, guilty of, “willfully and intentionally” destroying evidence of his alleged P2P activities, “after being notified of pending legal action by the RIAA”.
Did he in fact try to scrub his hard drive?And if he did, was it necessarily for nefarious purposes? Or was it because he’d simply had enough and wanted Kazaa and everything to do with it off his system?
Only he really knows, but meanwhile, p2pnet reader Rekrul has an interesting take.
“I don’t know the details of what happened (probably nobody except the tech experts do), but I’d like to make a guess,” he says, going on »»»
He uninstalled Kazaa, but didn’t clean the registry so there were still traces of it. Also, if it’s like most Windows software, it probably left directories and files all over the place.
Any reformat he did was probably a ‘quick’ format that simply wipes the FAT and directory info, but leaves all the data.
If he’d zero-filled the drive, the data would have been *GONE*, and it would take a hugely expensive piece of equipment and the complete disassembly of his drive to get anything back.
Downloading a file shredding program and nuking the logs wouldn’t be necessary after a true format of the drive, which is pretty much proof that he didn’t know what he was doing. Even if the order is listed wrong, he probably had no real idea how to remove all traces of something from his system, which is probably why he got caught.
Windows is notorious for leaving scraps of information all over the place.”
It’s, “almost like a scavenger hunt to try and find every location that Windows has squirrelled away information on what the computer has been doing,” adds Rekrul.
JN
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August 28th, 2008 at 10:59 am
So, what’s the point?
A murderer wipes out the fingerprints but forgets about one on the weapon…
“Your Honor, my client did not know what he was doing, otherwise he wouldn’t have been caught. On that fact alone he should be found not guilty.”
August 28th, 2008 at 9:05 pm
Cool! soon ppl in usa will be hang on trees for turning on computer and connecting it to internet!!
August 29th, 2008 at 12:30 pm
Just move your computer somewhere else, get another one with no music on it, “Here it is, search all ye want!” RIAA, FBI, Pigs, come and get me!!
August 29th, 2008 at 1:00 pm
“So, what’s the point?”
Each time I hear an RIAA paid troll open their pipe hole I charge them with a message to their masters:
1) Troll! Tell your master of evil that we will never but I mean never ever buy anything froim them!
But I mean NEVER!
2) Also we just hired a company of exterminators to come and spray your rat hole with pest killer.
Start running now like the cook-roaches you are!
August 30th, 2008 at 12:14 pm
Howell wasn’t restricted to do with his OWN PC whatever he wants to do. It’s a little bit odd they charge him certain operations not prohibited by laws.
September 1st, 2008 at 6:19 pm
Fat chance collecting on your $40,850 judgement, RIAA. Given
this guy has no money, he’ll probably declare bankruptcy. So
your chances of getting any money out of him are about equal
to that of squeezing blood out of a turnip.
September 3rd, 2008 at 2:35 am
He is guilty by default (no evidence is needed), and his hard drive suppose to proof he is innocent…
Good job judge! Justice upside down.