2nd Hand HD recovery

[magicman]

I recently bought a used hard drive on eBay, and I thought to cover myself I ought to make sure there's nothing dodgy on it before I started using it. The disk had been formatted, but I'm currently scanning the drive to see what was on it, and there are some fully recovered files that could pertain to illegal activity.

What I need to know is the legalities of second hand hard drive sales. For example, there's recoverable music on the drive, if I recover it and it came with the drive, has the music legally been sold to me, or if I recover the files would that mean I'm breaking copyright? Also, would I be breaking the law if I recover files that could potentially include personal information (bearing in mind I wouldn't do anything with that information, and would delete it as soon as I found it)?

The only reason why I'm recovering the files at all is because if there was illegal content on the drive, all it would take is an anonymous tip-off from the vendor and I could be liable for the drive's contents, formatted or otherwise. Currently the illegal activity evidence on the drive doesn't affect me, just evidence of what he's been using the drive for.

What's people's thoughts on this?

 

[Archangel]

I think you can be made responsible if you recover the files,. i also cant immagine the music on the disk would be considered legally bought if you recover it from the disk.. but true... this is a pretty tough question.

i would use on of the manufacturers tools to completely clean the disk for sure.. then you would be safe i gues.

maybe just email the guy where you bought the disk?