US ruling makes server RAM a 'document'?

[adrian]

Source (http://www.zdnet.com.au/news/software/soa/US-ruling-makes-server-RAM-a-document-/0,130061733,339278641,00.htm)

A federal judge in Los Angeles last week ruled that a computer server's RAM, or random-access memory, is a tangible document that can be stored and must be turned over in a lawsuit.

If allowed to stand, the groundbreaking ruling may mean that anyone defending themselves in a civil suit could be required to turn over information in their computer's RAM hardware, which could force companies and individuals to store vast amounts of data, say technology experts. Roaming the Web anonymously was already nearly impossible. This ruling, which brings up serious privacy issues, could make it a lot harder.

LOL. So, if they want the RAM evidence, then we gotta rip out the RAM sticks? And this why people need more computer education.

[Glen Miyashiro]

Electronic discovery has become the new norm in litigation.

http://www.ediscoverylaw.com/

[GeckoGeek]

It looks like it's going to be appealed. It went too far.

[Konaguy]

It looks like it's going to be appealed. It went too far.

I hope so, it will be impossible to comply with this court order. As RAM, unlike a hard drive does not permanently retain data.

[joshuatree]

Actually, the report has taken things out of context. If one reads through the court papers, the ruling identified info on RAM as electronically stored info because the info is stable within the RAM (assuming no power loss, etc), long enough for the info to be logged. So the bottom line of this court ruling is that Torrentspy should be enabling their logging feature on their servers so all the info passing through the RAM is recorded. Torrentspy's argument was that RAM doesn't hold info on a permanent basis so therefore, they have no info to give. MPAA's argument is that RAM can hold info long enough for logging function so therefore logging should be done and then info handled over. Judged decided in MPAA's favor.

[GeckoGeek]

Having to surrender the contents of a hard drive is one thing. But what seems to be happening here is now TorrentSpy is being forced to log information to turn over. Information that up to this time they were not logging. I don't understand all the details, but it seems a barrier between what's reasonable and anything the other party wants has been breached. Even more then before, the discovery process can be abused as a means of punishment in and of itself.