TorrentSpy Ordered to Retain RAM Data

By Greg McNevin

August 29, 2007: The legal stoush between the file sharing service TorrentSpy and the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) took a strange turn this week, with a federal judge not only ordering the BitTorrent site to monitor its users, but also that it must retain data stored only in random access memory (RAM).

TorrentSpy is one of the world’s largest file sharing networks and is under attack from the MPAA for allegedly facilitating copyright infringement by allowing its users to share copyrighted material (in this case movies).

The MPAA wants user data so it can track down and prosecute those infringing on its copyrights, and scored a win last week with a US magistrate judge ordering TorrentSpy to begin recording the IP’s of its US-based users and hand that information over to the MPAA.

TorrentSpy argues that due to its servers being physically located in the Netherlands, local privacy laws prevent it from keeping or disclosing the private information (such as IP addresses) of its users. It claimed that its privacy policy states that it does not collect private information or keep logs, and it abided by this with log information only existing in RAM, never saved to any form of more permanent storage.

Now, in a move that could set a worrying precedent, Judge Florence-Marie Cooper interpreted federal discovery rules quite broadly, claiming that RAM' functions as primary data storage and despite the fact that it is not stored permanently, because it is stored there - however briefly – means that it is governed by federal discovery rules.

Before hearts stop in record keeping departments around the US though, Judge Cooper claims that the decision will not have any substantial effect on record keeping and compliance obligations.

"The Court notes that this decision does not impose an additional burden on any website operator or party outside of this case," reads the order according to arstechnica.com. "It simply requires that the defendants in this case, as part of this litigation... begin preserving and subsequently produce a particular subset of the data in RAM under Defendants' control."

TorrentSpy has already blocked searches from US users, so it is doubtful the ruling will actually have any impact on the case, however, with RAM being labelled a “medium from which information can be obtained” the ramifications for the wider information archival and discovery community could still be significant, with any data residing in RAM now potentially subject to a court order.

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