Everybody likes movies. Problem is not everybody likes paying $12+ to see one. As movie prices have gone up, viewers have turned to torrent websites as a way to download and watch movies for free from the comfort of their own homes. Of course not everyone, especially the movie studios, like these websites and the free content they deliver. As a result, movie studios have turned to the courts to try to stop these websites from violating their copyrights. To no one’s surprise electronic discovery is a big component of these cases.

In Columbia Pictures Industries v. Bunnell, the defendant operated a torrent website that allowed its viewers to download and watch movies without paying for them. Columbia pictures sued for violation of its copyrights in the various films. To prove its case Columbia had to show the website directly or vicariously infringed by assisting users in using copyrighted material without permission.

The site operates by allowing a user to click on a link or search for a film and the site will then find the movie online where it can be downloaded to the user’s computer. To complete its process, the site records the request information in its RAM (random access memory). This information is stored only for a short amount of time and then deleted. There is no permanent record of the data.

In order for Columbia to show copyright violation, it needed this search information so it made a discovery request. The defendant argued that due to the RAM’s temporary nature, there was no record to be turned over. The court found otherwise. The court held, “the data in issue which was formerly temporarily stored in the defendant’s RAM constituted “electronically stored information” within the control of the defendant.” As such it was the defendant’s responsibility to preserve the information and produce it for the plaintiff.

A warning for torrent site users, for the defendant to meet the court’s demands, it now has to permanently store all the information, including the IP addresses, on who uses their site and how they use it. While this information is not initially turned over to the movie studio, it now exists in permanent form and someday could be turned over. So if you are going to violate a studio’s copyright in a movie, just know they now have the ability to discover who you are.

Michael Zoller received his B.A. in Political Science from Johns Hopkins University. He is currently a third-year law student at Seton Hall University School of Law, he will be receiving is J.D. in May ’11.