TorrentSpy ruling puts your RAM on trial

[EV_Ares]

Greg Sandoval for News.com

It was a pro-copyright ruling that stunned nearly everyone dealing with the issue of online piracy.
In a decision reported late Friday by CNET News.com, a federal judge in Los Angeles found 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.

"I think that people's fears about a potential invasion of privacy are quite warranted," said Ken Withers, director of judicial education at The Sedona Conference, an independent research group. "The fear is that we're putting in the hands of private citizens and particularly well-financed corporations the same tools that heretofore were exclusively in the hands of criminal prosecutors, but without the sort of safeguards that criminal prosecutors have to meet, such as applying for search warrants."

(((entire article @ link below)))


http://www.usatoday.com/tech/products/cnet/2007-06-14-ram-ruling_N.htm

[GreenTea]

1. Bit by Bit...They chip away..........

[snappyturtle]

2. I am not technically savvy about computers.....can someone

explain what this means to the average computer user?