'Defendants were on notice that this information would be of importance in this case.' 'A substantial number of items of evidence have been destroyed,' she wrote. But Cooper, in her new ruling, said TorrentSpy destroyed or altered several types of evidence, including user IP addresses, discussion forum postings about the trading of movies and moderator identities. That decision was widely criticized as being an unreasonable standard, because information held in RAM is temporary. Magistrate Judge Jacqueline Chooljian ruled that TorrentSpy must preserve server data logs held in random-access memory. TorrentSpy had located its servers in the Netherlands and argued that Dutch law protected it from having to turn over server logs and other information. 'They have engaged in widespread and systematic efforts to destroy evidence and have provided false testimony under oath in a effort to hide evidence of such destruction.'
The defendants' conduct was 'obstreperous,' Cooper wrote in her decision.
