'Accidental' Download Sends Man To Prison

[truba11a]

I call bs on him. The FBI really does have better things to do than randomly select some person who may have purposedly or accidently downloaded a few images of child pornography. You usually have to do things to get on their radar not just have some agent throw a dart at the board and say let's go find this guy from a year ago.

yes sir

[+Anarkii Subscriber²]

Hi,

Sounds like yet another reason not to install or use Limewire or similar P2P software to me.

The only stuff folks seem to download from it are malware and other software which you don't want to have on your system anyway.

Regards

Simon

Yep, I had Limewire installed for a week before removing it. I just wanted to grab some songs and movies, what I got instead was viruses attached to .avi's, songs that led to scamming sites and needed 'codecs' to play. Thankfully no CP, but any of them movies I got could of been if they opened.

[boogerjones]

The FBI couldn't be reached for comment on this specific case, but they did inform CBS's local Sacramento network that if a user ever downloads child pornography accidentally that they should contact the authorities immediately.

LOL, yeah right. That's the absolute last thing you would want to do. "Anonymous" tip about the source is the furthest you should think of going, but that would probably get you investigated unless you're super careful. And then that would look suspicious if they could trace you. The cops are not there to help you except in relatively rare circumstances.

Here's the only thing should ever say to police that want you to talk to them: "As it is my right guaranteed by the 5th Amendment, I will not be answering any of your questions."

I reported a counterfeit bill to law enforcement once. It got me a visit from the Secret Service, a felony arrest on my record, and thousands of dollars in legal bills before the DA dropped the charges (one of which no longer exists because it was found to be unconstitutionally vague). The only reason I was considered innocent-until-proven-guilty is because I could afford to pay to defend myself. Anyone else would've been ****ed. All for "doing the right thing." And yeah, you lose the money, too.

Edited December 7, 2009 by boogerjones

[greg098]

Do people still download movies and pictures in Limewire? It full of spyware and viruses and most of the files are rubbish.

[Scorbing]

OK let me get this one straight, the FBI is snooping around everybody's computer habits? How the hell do they know this guy did this?

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SOURCE

Matthew White, of Sacramento, California, has found himself in a rather unfortunate situation; he's been accused of downloading child pornography. On the advice of his public defender, White is pleading guilty in hopes of cutting his potential 20-year sentence down to three and a half years. After serving his time, White will have to serve 10 years of probation and register as a sex offender.

What makes this unfortunate is that the 22-year-old White claims he downloaded the child pornography on accident from the file-sharing service LimeWire. According to White, he was attempting to download a 'Girls Gone Wild' video two years ago, but when he opened the files, instead discovered images of underage girls. White claims to have immediately deleted the images and never looked back -- at least until the FBI showed up at his door a year later.

Last year, agents showed up at the door and asked if they could examine the family's computer. The Whites agreed, and, at least at first, the agents found nothing incriminating. Not satisfied with their preliminary search, the agents used software to dig deep into the hard drive and to recover deleted files. There, they recovered the illegal images. Matt told his local CBS News affiliate:

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

Despite the admission by the FBI that he could not access the files even if he wanted to, Matt was still arrested. Quick Google searches, conducted by CBS and ourselves, revealed plenty of complaints from LimeWire users of accidentally downloading child pornography disguised as more innocuous files.

In the event you ever accidentally download child pornography, the FBI advises you to immediately notify it. The Bureau admits that there is a chance your computer would be confiscated, but when your other option is facing 20 years in prison, that seems like a small price to pay.

[Eddo89]

So he is going to be jailed because he is ignorant of the fact he needs to report to the FBI.

Isn't there a larger picture to look at here? Like the fact child porn is circulating around the web?

[Azusa]

CP will always be on the web there is no stopping it sadly.

[Saburac]

How the hell do they know this guy did this?

One word, Limewire (or any other p2p client). Same way so many people get caught downloading music by the RIAA, these p2p services are monitored. They also tend to automatically share whatever you download with other people, even while it's downloading and apparently Limewire is absolutely filled with viruses and sadly sick crap like this guy got busted for. Although I noticed the story also didn't mention any ages, so they could have been 17 for all we know and he'd still be in trouble.

All I know is programs like Limewire are best avoided. If they don't get you in trouble they eat up your PC with malware. Every PC I've had to repair for people that had a p2p client on it were loaded down with viruses. Besides, there are plenty of ways to get music and things legally; if you're going to steal it (or "infringe" for the people who get uppity about that term) karma might just come back and bite you.

[buckboii]

Is this not the second story of man having child pornography this week so far?

i swear i read about a story like this in the news section. like another story.

[halcyoncmdr]

These types of situations are the reason the laws need to be changed. Back when file sharing was smaller it was obvious you were searching for something like this. Now that file sharing is common all it takes is one person to name the CP something entirely different that you are searching for and there you go, you are now a sex offender.

On a similar note... the judge should just throw the case out before it even gets started. He should not have to plead guilty just for a lighter sentence of something that he didn't actively search for and want.

Now should he be charged for illegally downloading the Girls Gone Wild episode? Of course, that is what he thought he got. That's an entirely different story.

[x9248]

^Same guy, same story :p

[dreamz Veteran]

threads merged

[redvamp128]

I guess he was just searching for beastiality* porn, but things got a bit mixed up :whistle:

* I don't really want to type that into google to check the spelling :laugh:

There was one attachment that would slip into systems that I read about- it was sent in emails

It said see my wife - and it was child porn- That was before the days of no image emails from not known senders.

So that was spam working against people.

[Azusa]

^yeah it seems the peados had the same foresting idea the pirates have today you know if you want to hide a leaf and such.

[ArKeYa]

"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."

Looks like he's not innocent. For all we know he purposely tried to cleanly wipe those files but failed. And the FBI is not commenting because they don't want to divulge publicly their methodology.

[Quillz]

I remember when I used LimeWire. Now, between Usenet and torrents, there's no need for the Gnutella network anymore.

[OOOOOOOO]

Limewire? What a goon. LOL!

[rawr_boy81]

This story doesn't sound right - I would say there are details that we don't know about; the downloaded file might have been one of many charges but due to a lack of evidence for the other ones the DA chose to cut their loses and charge him for what they could.

[Growled Member]

This story doesn't sound right - I would say there are details that we don't know about; the downloaded file might have been one of many charges but due to a lack of evidence for the other ones the DA chose to cut their loses and charge him for what they could.

I've been thinking the same thing. Why did the FBI suddenly show up at his house and search his computer a year later? Something just doesn't add up.

[revvo]

And what would happen if you stumble upon it on a site like 4Chan for example then quickly leave? Will they knock on your door then?

There's something that's not being said here about this story.

In the event where you're surfing a normal website, and you were "forced" in loading child porn, I seriously doubt they'd lock you in for that.

What if your friend sends you an email and he tricks you? I know that's not a friend, but just to say that you may not expect it when it happens. Like someone said it here, what if someone uses a sig with child porn on it, and a number of users and guests had the time to download it in their cache. Technically, you downloaded child porn, it's in your computer's hard drive somewhere.

I don't know what the law needs to get you, but they have to take into account that you can accidentally fall in the trap... otherwise all of Xchan to begin with = baited. My guess is, they're looking for links in the actions you've taken, such as searching for it and then downloading it, not just navigating CNN and then get trolled by an angry CNN employee who uploaded illegal porn on the main web page.