Andre Yoskowitz
27 Aug 2008 13:50
Federal Judge Neil V. Wake is set to reverse a previous decision that had ruled against the RIAA in the case of defendant Jeffrey Howell. Howell's case has been at the center of the "making available" point.
The case took a turn for the worse when the RIAA claimed that Howell had taken steps to remove all evidence of Kazaa from his computer despite "repeated and explicit warnings about the obligation to preserve evidence."
In April, the same judge ruled in favor of Howell, stating that the labels "hadn't provided adequate evidence that Howell had infringed their copyrights." Wake added that although the RIAA claimed Howell had 42 songs in his Kazaa shared folder, Judge Wake said that it could not be proven as infringement unless there was proof that someone actually downloaded the shared files. The key point however, was whether Howell had actually purposely shared the files or whether Kazaa had put them there automatically.
Because he erased the hard drive however against the judge's orders, it appears that the RIAA may win this case after all and Howell will not get a chance to argue the "making available" point. Unfortunately.