I've got a question I wanna ask while I'm thinking on it.. Typed out the post earlier this evening asking this question and the damn connection timed out when I hit submit and when refreshed my entire post went bye-bye.. So hopefully I can make this is as short and to the point as I am absolutely capable of wording..lol
Ok I wanted to get something clarified about child *advertiser censored*/[child exploitation in this case] and being charged with possession of CP.. In the unfortunate circumstance of so many cases now involving some degree of CP and therefor I have read a good bit on being charged with possession of CP..
And I want to see what exactly is correct.. There was a discussion on the linked site to this exact question and it really got me thinking and needing some clarity of knowing for certain about exactly what this "possession" entails.. Up til now what I understood to be the case was that the CP must have been downloaded and saved to an individual's device in his possession such as the hard drive of his computer or in this case downloaded and saved to a flash drive..
and then I'll explain why I worded it that an individual had to have downloaded and saved the media to a device in their possession[as is clearly stated to be the case for each of the seven Child Exploitation charges on Stephen]..
What was being argued and discussed today that led to me asking this question was that it was being stated that one did not have to have downloaded and saved the CP media<image or video>.. but rather what if a completely innocent occurance happened such as[and this is totally just an example]..what if a rogue and crazy member of WS right now here in this thread just up and decided to post a very graphic and explicit in nature image containing clear cut CP..say bessie or any of the other mods were not logged on and in this thread at this late night hour.. So this CP image was allowed to remain for atleast a matter of several minutes until someone intervened.. In the meantime here we are totally innocent bystanders reading and/or posting without even the slightest clue that when we refresh our page or click on to load the next page.. We unknowingly and completely unwillingly by having just simply loaded this page of posts..we all now have in some capacity that CP image on our computers, whether it be in the temporary files or your cache.. it still is in some capacity loaded the CP image onto our personal computers..
So, the argument was that this absolutely 100% consisted of all that was needed for any of us to have found on our personal computers[even if in the cache or temp file] regardless it is there and is all that is needed for their to be felony possession of child *advertiser censored* charges on any single one of us who just happened to have our computers searched after we'd unknowlingly just logged onto WS where some rogue member had posted this CP image unbeknownst to anyone..lol.. I know a bit of ridiculous scenario but was actually the example given on the other site so I just cut to the chase and used the same example to make the point and get clarity..
This just cannot be true is it?? Personally in the cases I have seen the arrest warrants are worded just as Stephen's is in that they have downloaded and saved the CP to a personal media device be it their hard drive, flash drive, cell phone, etc, etc..
Could someone who knows the clarification on this matter please answer when they may have a moment??
Thanks in advance to whoever may be able to help me resolve this little issue that was brought up earlier today
First, I doubt LE would charge you if that were the only evidence/occurrence of such material.
And, if they did, I'm sure you could beat that in court.
Also, I want to mention that he did not necessarily have to save these images to his hard drive,
then transfer them to the flash drive. They could be saved there directly.
Also... ever heard of a LiveCD?
You can boot a computer with one of these, and the entire system runs in memory
and no data is written to the hard drive whatsoever. You can access the internet,
download whatever (say via an online email account, special forum area, etc)
directly to a flash drive and the only trace of that material would be what's on the flash drive.
I think the fact that these images
were on a flash drive helps to show his intent to possess them.
Of course, the same would be true if they were on his hard drive, stored in specific directories/folders, etc.
The key to proving this, however, may lie in LE's ability to show that the flash drive
is actually his and not something just anyone would have access to.
Hopefully, there are other files of his on the drive and/or the CP was stored in such a way
there would be no way for him to
not realize it was there, while showing he was
regularly using the drive with this present.
I hope that makes sense
Of course, any other CP or even legal P images present on his other computers/devices
might also be enough to show beyond reasonable doubt this was part of his "collection".
Especially if the others exhibit similar subject matter consistent with the flash drives contents.
I have a feeling, however, that none of this will really come into play in this case.
I think he was arrogant enough to feel he was safe from any LE scrutiny,
so his computer activities are probably easy to discern.
Otherwise, those images would have been stored encrypted in a way
LE would never have been able to access them. :twocents:
