An Arizona federal judge ruled that that the music infringer accused by the Recording Industry Association of America acted in bad faith when he intentionally destroyed evidence of his Peer to Peer activities after he received the notice of legal action from the RIAA.

Because it was done in bad faith, the accused will support “appropriate sanctions" U.S. District Judge Neil V. Wake ordered.

The defendant - Jeffery Howell - was brought to justice under accusations of copyright infringement for sharing music over the KaZaA P2P network. He chose to represent and defend himself in court and was helped by the Electronic Frontier Foundation. He denied the charges brought against him and argued that the music MediaSentry found in his folder was for private use.

Howell scored a big win in April when the court ruled in his favor because the labels did not provide enough evidence to prove that the defendant had infringed their copyrights. The federal judge said that the 42 copyrighted songs found in Howell’s shared folder weren’t enough. The fact that he made them available for download on Kazaa doesn’t constitute infringement unless labels can prove that someone downloaded the songs without their authorization.

"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," the federal judge in Arizona ruled.

In July, the labels filed motion to seek a ruling in their favor because Howell attempted to erase evidence. According to RIAA, Howell attempted to cover his tracks on four occasions: when receiving the prelitigation settlement letter and after being served with the lawsuit.

Wake was convinced by the RIAA motion and will soon notify Howell in a written order of his sanctions.