Sexting Subterfuge – Miller v. Skumanick Decided
The long awaited decision in the first sexting case to reach a federal appeals court was issued yesterday by a unanimous Third Circuit. The verdict: "appearing in a [sexting] photograph provides no evidence as to whether that person possessed or transmitted the photo."
In other words, as I correctly opined here in December, a minor depicted in a sexting image is only guilty of a child pornography offense if the prosecutor can prove that they possessed or distributed their image; a teen's appearance in a sexting image (even an image of bona fide child pornography) is not, ...
The Rights of Foster Children – legal update
Appellate decisions regarding foster care are rare and decisions that focus on foster children are rarer still. So when two decisions appear in the space of about a week they deserve some commentary. One is from the Maryland Court of Appeals, Maryland's highest court, and addresses an issue of great interest: under what circumstances and to what extent does a foster child's attachment to foster parents impact the rights of the biological parents when such parents are confronting the termination of their parental rights? The other case, from the New York Appellate Divisi...
Restitution for Child Porn Victims – The Debate Continues
Broadcast today on The Kojo Nnamdi Show on WAMU in Washington, DC:
Traditionally, courts have punished those convicted of possessing child pornography with heavy jail time. But in a growing trend, victims are demanding that offenders pay restitution too. The approach is generating debate about how far courts can go in punishing people who are caught with pornography, but aren't the direct perpetrators of the crime.
Listen to the re-broadcast here.
Lower Merion Parents Say No to Lawsuit
This just in from Philly.com:
A group of Lower Merion and Harriton High School parents met to discuss ways to derail the possibility that a federal lawsuit over laptop spying could lead to a lengthy and expensive class-action case against their district.
Bryn Mawr resident Michael Boni, one of the organizers, said yesterday: "We have spoken to our neighbors and friends, and it seemed that there was a groundswell of opposition to one family with one lawyer bringing this action on behalf of the community."
He said the parents were "not suggesting there weren't problems" ...
Should Possessors of Child Pornography Pay Restitution to the Child?
FindLaw columnist and Cornell law professor Sherry Colb takes on a question involving my client that has sharply divided courts: Should a person who is found to have committed the crime of possessing child pornography be required to pay restitution to each child who appears in those images? The question has been posed very sharply recently, because images of one child victim -- whose pseudonym is "Amy" -- have been at issue in 350 criminal cases across the country. Moreover, the difference in the amount of restitution awarded in those cases is dramatic: Two Florida judges ...
School District PREYing on Students
The Lower Merion School District recently admitted to activating the webcams on 42 "missing" school-owned laptops without the knowledge or permission of students and their families. Surprisingly, the software that performs this function is not only widely available, it's free and downloadable by anyone.
One such program is called Prey. It's open source and was recently discussed in this TechRepublic video.
Prey is a lightweight program which runs in the background and is completely hidden to the end user. It's built in modules so an administrator can choose whether or not ...
Los Angles Times and ABCNews.com – restitution stories proliferate
In two separate stories today, the Los Angeles Times and ABCNews.com consider the issue of restitution for victims of child pornography and contribute new information to the debate (which still to me doesn't seem like much of a debate):
From the LATimes:
The issue of criminal restitution in child pornography possession cases emerged last February in Connecticut when a federal judge said he would order a man convicted of possessing and distributing child pornography to pay about $200,000 to Amy. The judge said it was the first criminal case in which someone convicted of ...