Monday, May 14, 2012
Wednesday, May 9, 2012
The Tide is Turning
New York Court: Viewing Online Child Porn Is Legal
By Alex Fitzpatrick
Viewing pornographic images or video of underage children on the Internet is legal, according to aNew York State appeals court in one part of a decision about the fate of a college professor whoseInternet browser had more than 100 such images stored in its cache.
The court's decision found that looking at child pornography on the Internet without downloading it to a hard drive isn't the same as "possessing" it, which New York State law prohibits.
[More from Mashable: Twitter Stands Up to Court Order for Occupier’s Data]
"Merely viewing web images of child pornography does not, absent other proof, constitute either possession or procurement within the meaning of our Penal Law," Senior Judge Carmen Beauchamp Ciparick wrote in his majority opinion. "Rather, some affirmative act is required (printing, saving, downloading, etc.) to show that defendant in fact exercised dominion and control over the images that were on his screen."
The prosecution in the case, wrote Ciparick, failed to prove that Kent was aware of the existence of a web cache, making it impossible for him to have knowingly downloaded -- and therefore possessed -- the child pornography to his browser's cache.
[More from Mashable: U.S. and China Team Up to Stop Cyberattacks]
Professor James D. Kent, an assistant professor at Marist College in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., was given a one-to-three year sentence for possession of child pornography in 2009.
Kent took his computer to a student IT specialist for a virus scan after complaining that it was running slowly. The scan detected the pornographic material in Kent's web browser. He maintains that somebody else used his computer to view the material.
The court dismissed one of two counts of promoting a sexual performance of a child and two of the 143 counts of possessing child pornography with which Kent was originally charged. It upheld the other counts, which were tied to a folder on Kent's machine filled with thousands of images of child pornography.
Nathan Z. Dershowitz, Kent's lawyer, told msnbc.com that the real problem in the case is "legislation is not keeping up with technology," as the court system serves only as an umpire applying the rules as passed by lawmakers.
All judges in the case expressed intense disapproval of child pornography.
Monday, May 7, 2012
News and Updates....
First
for news...
GREEN
BAY, WI (WTAQ) - A new proposal would eliminate the city of Green Bay’s sex
offender residence board. Any sex offender that wants to move to the city
must register and get approval through the board. However, current
ordinances are so restrictive that sex offenders can’t live within a majority
of the city. Police say that has lead to an increasing number of sex
offenders going underground and in non-compliance. It was also
discovered that the state corrections department was not working with the city
officials and were finding sex offenders places to live and not even telling
the board. Green Bay Police Chief Jim Arts is behind the new proposal
that would cut down on restrictions. The sex offender residence board
meets today at 2:30 p.m. to begin what it likely to be a high contentious
debate.
And now for Updates....
Recently
the Department of Community Corrections updated their Sex Offender Supervision
Manual, it is now updated with the new laws that have come out since 2004.
While the manual still says 2004, if you look at the individual pages and
the information contained within, it has been updated.
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