5th Circuit: Peer-to-Peer Child Porn Storage Supports Distribution Conviction
Findlaw: The appellate court, however, agreed with the First and Tenth Circuits that downloading images and videos containing child pornography from a peer-to-peer computer network and storing them in a shared folder accessible to other users on the network amounts to distribution under federal law. | U.S. v. Richardson IV
Study: Vast Majority Of Homemade Porn, Private Photos End Up Online
CBS: The vast majority of homemade pornography and private images on personal computers ends up on public websites called “parasites.”
Eighty-eight percent of homemade pornography, including videos and still images, finds its way onto porn sites, often without the owners’ knowledge, a new study from Britain’s Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) has found. | Internet Watch Foundation press release
Pricing Amy: Should Those Who Download Child Pornography Pay the Victims?
Lorelei Laird at the ABA Journal: Under the Crime Victims’ Rights Act, the government must notify Amy and other child pornography victims anytime anyone is arrested by federal authorities for possessing their images. Her attorney, James Marsh of New York City, says his office has received at least 1,500 required notices of federal prosecutions for possession of those images. “The day after we were retained in 2008, we had someone open up all these notices she received in the calendar years 2006 and 2007,” Marsh says. “It took two days just to open the envelopes.” Using the restitution provisions of the Violence Against Women Act, Marsh has begun utilizing the courts to request financial restitution from those convicted of possessing images of Amy’s child sexual abuse.
7th Circuit: Embedded web videos don’t necessarily infringe copyright
Reuters: Appeals court overturns ban on video-sharing site
A video-sharing website that allows users to post links to copyrighted videos hosted on third-party sites is not infringing copyright laws, a federal appeals court ruled on Thursday.
Flava Works v. Gunter, No. 11-3190 (7th Cir. Aug. 2, 2012)
Counting Crimes When Defendants Possess Many Images of Child Pornography on Several Devices
Orin Kerr at the Volokh Conspiracy: Imagine a defendant in a child pornography case has two computers in his home. Each computer contains twenty images of child pornography. Has the defendant committed one single crime of possessing forty images? Or has he committed two crimes of possessing twenty images each?
5th Circuit reinstates stiff sanctions against lawyer in porn copyright troll suit
Although Mick Haig had obtained their Internet Protocol (“IP”) addresses and the names of their internet service providers (“ISPs”), it knew no other information about those 670 persons. Mick Haig sued them as John Doe defendants (“the Does”), alleging copyright infringement. Mick Haig then sought permission to expedite discovery in order to subpoena the Does’ ISPs to disclose their names and contact information before the required Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 26(f) discovery conference . . .
2nd Circuit: Viewing child cyberporn online can be “possession”
Reuters: A New York man imprisoned for possessing and receiving child pornography cannot argue that he was wrongly convicted because he never stored the images on his computer, a federal appeals court has ruled. In an opinion on Monday, a three-judge panel of the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York considered for the first time whether viewing forbidden images on the Internet constitutes knowingly receiving and possessing them. | U.S. v. Ramos, No. 10-4802-cr
Federal Judge: Utah’s Harm to Minors Internet Law is Unconstitutional
Deseret News: The Utah law sought to make website operators or content providers liable for any material that the state deems harmful to minors. | Opinion: Florence v. Shurtleff, No. 2:05-cv-00485-DB-SA
NY High Court: Viewing child pornography online is not necessarily possession under state law
Reuters: Viewing child pornography on the Internet without taking further action such as printing or saving files does not necessarily constitute possession, NewYork’s top court ruled on Tuesday. | People v. Kent
3rd Circuit revives suit challenging pornography record keeping requirements
Reuters: A U.S. appeals court on Monday revived a lawsuit brought by members of the adult entertainment industry which challenges federal laws requiring pornography producers to report the ages of all performers.
| Free Speech Coalition v Attorney General, No. 10-4085 (3rd Cir. April 16, 2012) (Before SCIRICA, RENDELL, and SMITH, Circuit Judges. )
