United States v. Shaffer - 472 F.3d 1219 (10th Cir. 2007)

Rule:

Under 18 U.S.C.S. § 2252A(a)(2), it is unlawful for a person knowingly to distribute child pornography by any means, including by computer. The statute does not itself define the term "distribute," so the court looks to how the term is understood as a matter of plain meaning. "Distribute" is defined as: To apportion; to divide among several; to arrange by class or order; to deliver; to spread out; to disperse; to divide among several or many; deal out; apportion especially to members of a group or over a period of time; allot; dispense; to give out or deliver.

Facts:

The case arose when a special agent noticed that a certain Kazaa computer network account user, defendant, had in his shared folder accessible to other Kazaa users a large number of files containing images and videos of child pornography. During the course of the search of his home and computer, defendant consented to an interview with the special agent. During that interview, defendant admitted to being the sole user of the computer in his home; employing the screen name shaf@Kaza; and knowingly downloading through Kazaa 100 movies and 20 still photos involving child pornography, which he estimated occupied a total of approximately 10 gigabytes. Defendant further admitted that he stored images of child pornography in his Kazaa shared folder. Defendant was convicted for the crime of distribution and possession of child pornography, 18 U.S.C.S. §§ 2252A(a)(2), 2252A(a)(5)(B). On appeal, defendant alleged that there was insufficient evidence to sustain his conviction. Defendant claimed that he did not, as a matter of law or fact, "distribute" child pornography when he downloaded images and videos from a peer-to-peer computer network and stored them in a shared folder on his computer accessible by other users of the network. According to the defendant, in order to distribute something, a person had to actively transfer possession to another.

Issue:

Was the evidence sufficient to sustain defendant’s conviction under 18 U.S.C.S. §§ 2252A(a)(2), 2252A(a)(5)(B)? 

Answer:

Yes.

Conclusion:

The appellate court found that the evidence was sufficient to sustain defendant's conviction under 18 U.S.C.S. §§ 2252A(a)(2), 2252A(a)(5)(B) where defendant conceded that he allowed, or caused, distribution by leaving files on his computer that other Kazaa users could access, that he did so knowingly, and defendant distributed child pornography in the sense of having delivered, transferred, dispersed, or dispensed it to others where although defendant did not actively pushed pornography on Kazaa users, he freely allowed them access to his computerized stash of images and videos and openly invited them to download those items.