Accidental Child Porn Download Leads to Jail Time

[SandEagle]

http://www.switched.com/2009/12/07/...ental-child-porn-download-leads-to-jail-time/


by Terrence O'Brien — Dec 7th 2009 at 2:25PM

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. [From: CBS 13]



sucks for this dude, but how did the fbi find this random guy from limewire? how did they know it wasnt a GGW video either? PSA: stay away from torrents and stop downloading illegal ****

 

[Crono]

This is a literal "uhohs".

 

[ChanHo78]

that is what he gets for still using limewire... fucking moron.

 

[SunnyD]

Meh. No warrant, no search. Not that I use limewire anyway.

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

Damn, he could get less time for shooting the public defender that gave him the advice.

 

[Kalmah]

that's some bs if this story is accurate.

 

[amdhunter]

I've been browsing the web since 1997 and have downloaded tons and tons and tons of stuff, but never hit "accidental" child porn...lol

 

[thecrecarc]

sucks for this dude, but how did the fbi find this random guy from limewire? how did they know it wasnt a GGW video either?

I am curious about this too, especially given their 1 year response time.

 

[ChanHo78]

probably for the other 'accidental' cp videos that he downloaded.

 

[Acanthus]

I've been browsing the web since 1997 and have downloaded tons and tons and tons of stuff, but never hit "accidental" child porn...lol

I actually saw this happen at a lanparty once.

A guy was trying to download a video of some WoW raid and wound up with child porn on his PC... with like 7 of us there watching... that was an uncomfortable night for all involved.

We of course deleted it immediately, like the guy wants the FBI taking his PC over so they can get some vague IP info and getting it back months later if at all.

 

[Bignate603]

Damn, he could get less time for shooting the public defender that gave him the advice.

Exactly. Any decent lawyer should be able to make a case for him to be acquitted.

 

[Acanthus]

that's some bs if this story is accurate.

I find it hard to believe that the story is as it's written.

1. Time frame is wild.
2. Story is extremely shaky.
3. Under the circumstances provided, i doubt the FBI would try to press charges.

 

[rockyct]

I bet they got the wrong guy but once they started searching, the FBI guy tried to find anything on the computer to "nail" him. I'm kind of surprised the FBI isn't arguing that if someone visits 4chan, they're a pedophile.

 

[Platypus]

That story is all sorts of bullshit, specifically in how the investigation of his computer was done. That would get thrown out in court immediately if they didn't follow proper procedure in a hard drive examination and they would never in a million years do it in front of the perp.

Furthermore, showing up a year later is also pretty much bullshit as well as it being unlikely that it'd be instantly a federal case. Most of them wind up in local state courts. If this is indeed real I'll be extremely surprised.

 

[T9D]

...

 

[Jeff7]

I love how they have a "pornography" link there to other related articles.
Would've been funnier if they'd have made "child pornography" a link, and then had it lead to a simple IP logging site.


Also, the guy's expression in the pic is just so fitting.:awe:

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.

Oh cool, so all someone needs to do is host some child porn on some servers in some other country, and spam lots of forums with some links to it, disguised as something else. And there you go, thousands or millions of people "need" to call the authorities immediately.
Something doesn't sound quite right about that.

"You've been CP-roll'd!"

 

[FelixDeCat]

I wonder how many people are rushing to self incriminate by turning in their laptops or pcs for examination that the FBI admits will be confiscated? People have never heard of wiping free space and scrubbing drives? Cant change IP logs however. Now if someone visits 12chan (an Interpol honeypot), uploads anything, emails anything, requests or trades anything they are taking an extreme risk.

 

[Sumguy]

C'mon, ATOT. You're all slacking.

 

[goog40]

How it should have went down:

FBI: May we examine your computer?

Matthew White: Fuck off.

Disaster averted.

 

[akshatp]

Scary shit... I know plenty of people that still use limewire

 

[rudder]

probably for the other 'accidental' cp videos that he downloaded.

This. No one gets a 20 year sentence for downloading one file.

 

[Jinru]

How it should have went down:

FBI: May we examine your computer?

Matthew White: Fuck off.

Disaster averted.

Followed with a hammer to his HD before feds return with warrant.

 

[Fear No Evil]

I call shens because who the hell downloads girls gone wild videos? If that part would have been more believable he probably would have been OK.

 

[Number1]

How it should have went down:

FBI: May we examine your computer?

Matthew White: Fuck off.

Disaster averted.

I agree. If the police want's to have a look at your computer, I am willing to bet they are not looking for something that's going to be in your best interest.

 

[waggy]

yeah lots in that story makes me wonder if true. but NEVER EVER LET anyone search your house, car, computer whatever without a warrent