Society 20 years for 'accidental' pedo download...

Dark-san

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Let's see. Let me painted a scenario.

One day, 'A' downloaded pornography from some P2P network with the intention of getting pictures of matured ladies. 'A' got some file named 'College Girls gone wild'. And when 'A' opened up that file, it turns out to be some child pornography. In disgust, 'A' deleted it without second thoughts.

Some years later, the police found that deleted file in 'A's PC and decides to charge 'A' with possession of child pornography.

Now you tell me whether if this is justice? 'A' has to serve a jail sentence because some arse decided to rename the file and 'A' have to pay for his/her crime?

To me that doesn't adds up. =.= Well but for this unlucky fellow, he had to pay for his crime. =\

Quoted from CBS13, 02 December 2009

'Accidental' Download Sending Man To Prison

SACRAMENTO (CBS13) ― A local man is likely to go to prison for years after he says he accidentally downloaded child pornography onto his computer.

Matthew White, 22, said he was surfing for pornography two years ago on Limewire -- a fire sharing application that allows users to trade music, movies, games and pictures -- when he discovered that some of the files he had downloaded were images of children.

Matt claims he quickly erased the files.

"It didn't appeal to me," he said. "I was looking for women my age, so I just wanted to download 'College Girls Gone Wild' and accidentally downloaded underage pornography."

About a year later, FBI agents showed up at his family's home. The family agreed to let agents examine the computer, and at first, they couldn't find anything.

Investigators later were able to recover the deleted images from deep within the hard drive.

"I asked them, 'Where did you get that? I don't remember that.' I asked them, 'Could I access that if I wanted to?'" Matt said. "They said no."

Facing 20 years in prison for possessing child pornography, Matt is pleading guilty on the advice of his public defender in hopes of getting a three and a half year sentence. He will also serve 10 years probation and have to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life.

Matt's father says other parents need to be warned about the consequences of stumbling across illicit material.

"One day, you're going to get a knock on the door and have your child taken away for many years," he said.

Matt's court date has been moved to January 8th due to paperwork issues, according to reports.

The FBI could not comment on this specific case, but said if child pornography is ever downloaded accidentally, the user needs to call authorities immediately. They may confiscate your computer, but it's better than the alternative.

Internet searches reveal a large number of complaints from people who say they've accidentally downloaded child pornography through Limewire.

(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)

I'm not sure if the criminal investigation is even done properly. =\ But thankfully, I had not use Limewire at all. =\
 

Googlez_kun

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talk about unfairness
how lame is that?
couldn't they find out when he downloaded it and deleted it?
i think they skipped the part of logical thinking
plus it was only 1 file,which he deleted immediatly....
sometimes they are really too strict!...and idiotic
 

Drmke

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Clearly unfair. They are able to tell when a file was received as well as deleted and should be able to tell he deleted it right away. The whole "they may confiscate your computer" is complete bullshit. And to show up a year later? How long can they even investigate a situation like this? Seems pretty messed up to me.
 

Belisar

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couldn't he just format his hard disc?
 

Googlez_kun

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couldn't he just format his hard disc?
He probably did not even know that they would get him for a file he deleted immediatly after seeing what it was.
 

SketchyPhoenix

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Something about that doesn't seem right. If it took them a year to nail that guy, they were investigating him for some time. I think this article is just blowing one part of the situation out of proportion for readers.

couldn't he just format his hard disc?
I'm not sure if a format works that way. When something is deleted "permanently" from your hard drive, that data is marked as overwriteable and your computer now considers that space as part of your Free space left.

Law enforcement pulls information out of your hard drive by using software to reverse the process. It's not perfect since that data will be overwritten over time if there's a lot of files saved/removed to the hard drive or by other means, but whatever isn't corrupt can be recovered and analyzed.
 

AnkorSVK

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The article is realy a bit crazy. One whole year later.
I dont know who was the idiot who accused him and that for minimum 3,5 years. From my point if he were realy interested in such stuff there would be more files like that on the computer(in his home) not only the one and only one! deleted a year ago(after DL it).

On other hand the possible scenario they got the original owner seeder of the file a short amounth of time before and without thinking/taking enough time for further investigation they just followed all the IPs which DL the file- the simpliest solution.

And about the HDD usualy its like SketchyPhoenix said you deleted it only in the way that you marked the space as ready to reuse (but not realy empty). Option stuff after that your HDD as much as possible this way you overwrite the data and theres no way to restore it.
 

Belisar

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I'm not sure if a format works that way. When something is deleted "permanently" from your hard drive, that data is marked as overwriteable and your computer now considers that space as part of your Free space left.

Law enforcement pulls information out of your hard drive by using software to reverse the process. It's not perfect since that data will be overwritten over time if there's a lot of files saved/removed to the hard drive or by other means, but whatever isn't corrupt can be recovered and analyzed.
there are progs that use special algorithms do delete it or you overwrite your whole hard disc with ones and zeros.

i don't know what is more disturbing, a guy who has deleted child pornography on his comp or the goverment that sues him for that.
 

Shiro-kun

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Its really fishy on both sides (is their more to this guy that this article isnt telling? Did FBI investigate throughly enough?).... its also disturbing
 

segua

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couldn't he just format his hard disc?
Doing multiple full formating might work. From what I understand, a full format zeros the hard drive. But if the hard drive were to be disassembled and a powerful scanner used, it might detect previous signals. This is where the suggestion of getting a program that re-writes randomized data onto the areas that are marked as free space a certain number of times.

Well, from what I understand, a file consist of the header and the actual data. When a file is deleted, only the header of the file is deleted but the actual data is still there.

The guy should've gotten a better lawyer and fought. He might be used as an example. Why not go after people who actually download child-pornography knowingly? And if you download child-porn "accidentally", what were you doing on a child-porn site in the first place? Of course if you were fooled like that guy, it was really an accident and shouldn't have to be punished with something like 20 years imprisonment. A slap on the wrist is fine but something like 20 years is outrageous in his case that is if he really tried downloading "College Girls Gone Wild."

From what I understand, there are porn sites out there that have partnered with anti-child porn organizations such as ASACP to eliminate child porn. For the avid porn surfer, they could report any child porn to ASACP if they come across it.
 
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