Collier County Sheriff's Deputies arrested a man in Golden Gate, Florida for possession of child pornography. Jose Aguiar, 23, was charged with 23 counts of the offense, which is codified at Florida Statute 847.0135. Police throughout the state have been cracking down on the transmission of lewd images of children.
Law enforcement officials believe that Aguiar was using a peer-to-peer file sharing network to obtain and transfer the pornographic images of children. Each count of possession of child pornography is a third-degree felony, punishable by up to five years in a Florida state prison, in addition to thousands of dollars in fines. Aguiar therefore faces a maximum penalty of 115 years in prison for the images police allegedly found on his computer.
Peer-to-peer file sharing was initially popularized for sharing music, which is often downloaded for free and in violation of relevant copyright laws. Now, it enjoys a broader audience, and users can find and share images, video, and audio files. For that reason, peer-to-peer file sharing software has become a main method of trading pornography, including child pornography. The users do not typically have any contact with one another; instead, a user can simply browse or search for the type of media he wants to view. If another user has matching files in his 'shared' folder, the software will allow the searching user the download the media files directly from the second user. Law enforcement officials and music executives alike have found the files difficult to track in part due to the pervasiveness of the software.
The sheriff's office anticipates forthcoming child pornography possession arrests in addition to Aguiar's, although it is not clear if any of the anticipated arrests involve file-sharing or the sharing of any of the files Aguiar is accused of having in his possession.
