United States v. Shaffer
United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit
472 F.3d 1219 (2007)

- Written by Alex Ruskell, JD
Facts
Aaron Shaffer (defendant) was convicted of possessing and distributing child pornography. Specifically, Shaffer had shared images by using Kazaa, a peer-to-peer computer application that allowed users to trade files through the Internet. To trade files, users put the files in a folder that could be accessed at any time by any other Kazaa user. Shaffer stored child pornography in his shared folder because Kazaa gave him various rewards when others downloaded files from him. To facilitate downloading, Shaffer often left his computer on while he was at work. After his conviction, Shaffer appealed to the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit, arguing that the relevant statute made distributing child pornography illegal and that he had only passively allowed others to take files from his computer.
Rule of Law
Issue
Holding and Reasoning (Gorsuch, J.)
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