Intellectual Property Law

Evidentiary Songs Played by iPods

By Martha L. Arias

Some months ago we reported on the use of iPods as an educational tool, and provided information on schools and universities that have incorporated this technology for the benefit of their students. Our report today involves a more complex use of iPods; iPods used by investigators to collect evidence and by defense attorneys. iPods' storage capability and functionality makes them a perfect device for defense attorneys and criminal investigators.  They are inexpensive technology to record or format lengthy information.  Maybe its creators did not envisage iPods for purposes other than entertainment but, as my grandmother said, a chair can help reach higher places.   

In 2006, a U.S. District Court judge in Toledo, Ohio, approved the purchase of six iPods and power adaptor to be used by defendants in a multi-count drug conspiracy case.  The goal was to provide the iPods to six defendants so they could listen to the FBI's wiretaps of their conversations before the case went to trial.  Defendants were to listen to these wiretaps either at the U.S. Marshal's office -those detained- or at their defense attorney's office.  Formatting the wiretaps into CDs cost the tax payers between $80,000 and $100,000 while the iPods and power adaptors cost less than $2,000 (about $330 per iPod).  Content from 13 CDs were inexpensively downloaded in each iPod.  One of the defense attorneys in that case said "the iPods are easy to use, save a lot of money, and control access to the information pursuant to the orders of the court. This is a promising solution to a real practical problem."  Most of the defendants in this case were convicted; and, as for the iPods, it is not reported but our guess is that the court kept them; not the defendants.

Criminal investigators are also using iPods to record conversations; video-tape certain scenes; and take handy photographs; all these with an innocent-looking device.  iPods can store movies, encrypted files, contacts, calendar information, etc., and this data can be later downloaded in a PC.  Forensic experts have revealed that iPods have some special features that allow certain content to be hidden so secret information is not noticeable.  Experts from Kroll Ontrack, a computer forensic company, state that iPods can serve as external hard drive to a host computer so files can be transferred through programs such as Windows Explorer, instead of iTunes.  Kroll Ontrack has conducted forensic examinations on iPods and recommends considering the following issues when an iPod forensic investigation is conducted,

(1) Integrity of the data.  Experts recommend collecting data from iPods when it is connected to a computer or mounted to a charger.  Other methods to download the information could risk the data, especially if the iPod is booby-trapped with a malicious program that activates when disconnected without a code.  (2) Operating file system.  Information stored in iPods can only be downloaded if the operating file system used by iPods is obtained.  iPods using Windows-based computers will use an FAT32 file system, while iPods using Macintosh use a HFS+ file system.  (3) Forensic experts may be able to match the iPod file type system with the computer to which it is connected.  This facilitates further investigation and a new source of evidence. 

Thus, iPods are being used by courts as a technical devise to facilitate review of evidence; but more interesting, iPods are used to collect evidence.  As a source of evidence, forensic analysis is conducted just as they are in PC hard drives.   Evidence from iPods is admitted in court just as any other evidence obtained from a computer hard drive. 

Full post as published by IBLS Internet Law Blog on October 22, 2008 (boomark / email).