Alleged file sharer Jeffrey Howell would seem to be living proof of the age-old maxim that a person who represents themselves in a courtroom has a fool for an attorney. When the RIAA filed a copyright infringement suit against him, he had difficulty in finding a lawyer and thus elected to defend himself. He had some early success in the trial, which is worth noting, but he also appears to have made a completely boneheaded move which he is certain to be regretting as you read this; he allegedly tried to destroy evidence.

First, let’s take a look at where it all began, way back in the P2P dark ages with KaZaA. The Music MediaSentry detected a shared folder full of music on Howell’s computer. He then had the misfortune to be one of the people of whom the RIAA decided to make an example; one might note that the targets of the RIAA tend to be the folks that are less likely to be able to afford a competent defense.

Howell struck a decent blow to the RIAA last April when Judge Neil V. Wake ruled that:

…a distribution must involve a ’sale or other transfer of ownership’ or a ‘rental, lease, or lending’ of a copy of the work. The recording companies have not proved an actual distribution of 42 of the copyrighted sound recordings at issue, so their motion for summary judgment fails as to those recordings.

It would seem that Howell was on the way to victory, as the RIAA could not prove that he had distributed the files, but Howell is alleged to have made a silly move before it all started: it is claimed that he had destroyed the evidence on his computer on no less than four occasions. According to the RIAA, Howell deleted all of the files in his shared folder, then reformatted his hard drive, used a file shredding program and destroyed the KaZaA logs on his computer.

The RIAA seized upon this and argued:

The deliberate destruction… by itself, compels the conclusion that such evidence supported Plaintiffs’ case.

As it turns out, it is the destruction of evidence, rather than the shared folder, which has landed Howell in hot water. On Monday it was ruled by Judge Wake that Howell’s actions, in relation to the destruction of evidence, were both willful and intentional and thus warranted further sanctions. The exact nature of the sanctions will be determined later, but you can bet that they will involve a whole lot of money that Jeffrey Howell probably doesn’t have. [Ars Technica]

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