Let’s just pretend for a minute that the RIAA has come knocking on your door accusing you of using a P2P service to illegally share music, and violating copyrights. Your first instinct is what? If you’re Jeffrey Howell, you:









Uninstall KaZaa Delete EVERYTHING in the shared folder Reformat the hard drive Download and use a file-wiping program to eliminate all KaZaa logs

If you are the judge in this case, you automatically find Howell guilty and rule in favor of the RIAA. Yes, the RIAA did score a win.

At the beginning of this whole situation, Howell actually had things going his way. The judge ruled his his favor saying that making a file available on a P2P network like KaZaa isn’t enough to find someone guilty of copyright infringement as the RIAA argued. According to Ars, after the judge made that ruling, it looked as though the case would go to trial in the Fall, that is, until the RIAA filed a motion regarding Howell’s tampering and destroying of evidence. The judge ruled in the RIAA’s favor.

Once Howell knew he was in trouble, he did all of the things listed above which was enough to show that he had to be guilty. He’ll likely have to fork-out a good chunk of money to the RIAA once he gets a written order from the judge.

Now you know what not to do if the RIAA comes knocking on your door.

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