Torrent poisoning leads to arrest
#1
Hi everyone. I could use your help. A close friend of mine has cops show up at his doorstep 2 years ago. They said he was downloading illegal (underage) pornography, lots of it, several hundred files. He swears he didn't and I believe him. Not cause I know he'd never do that (which I do), but because he isn't dumb enough to download the most illegal thing in the world, using P2P software which is notorious for trackers without even trying to use a VPN.

The ip and torrent port were definitely his, so they didn't make a mistake nor did anyone hijack his WiFi. He never deleted his search history cause he had nothing to hide and nothing he searched on the dates before the download would result in such torrents. The police and forensic experts also found no trace of the torrents, despite recovering deleted files. So they have no proof, but he is likely to get convicted anyway cause CP is the worst and they don't really know much about how P2P software works, or internet in general.

His theory as to what most likely happened is that some messed up troll planted CP in a regular torrent, most likely a video game. My friend says he always checked the contents before downloading a torrent, unless it has thousands of files and many folders, like a video game, but even checking all of them wouldn't help cause someone can just rename the video/image files to something harmless. It wouldn't fool the cops, but it would fool the downloader. Secondly: he always checks the torrents after they download & before deleting them (in case the download got stuck). If the torrent did download, he would check it and spot the disgusting material. Same if it was incomplete. Seeing as he says that he didn't see a single image, he assumes that the torrent never did download completely (either had poor seeders (possibly just that 1 troll) or the guy got arrested himself so there was nobody to download from). He then deleted it when it was obvious it will never download, which is why the cops found nothing. Cause it was incomplete files that were deleted months ago.

He is currently on trial and could get 10y in jail. He is also banned from using the internet, which is why i'm trying to find other cases of torrent poisoning. I found 1 other case. Do you know of any? It would be a huge help cause the cops & judges don't believe one can unintentionally download such content.
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#2
I don't know if this is much help, but have you checked out the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF)? www.eff.org

They are a group of lawyers that help with copyright laws and anything, well, electronic.

I'm not sure if they can help with torrent downloaders, but since this case is a little more than that, perhaps this case might merit some attention to them.
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#3
(Mar 16, 2022, 23:17 pm)RobertX Wrote: I don't know if this is much help, but have you checked out the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF)? www.eff.org

They are a group of lawyers that help with copyright laws and anything, well, electronic.

I'm not sure if they can help with torrent downloaders, but since this case is a little more than that, perhaps this case might merit some attention to them.

Thanks, I doubt it will help much since he's not from the US, but a small European country. I'd rather not say which. I will check and perhaps contact that website however. Thank you!
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#4
That's all I can do.

Sorry if it won't be much help.

I hope his name will be cleared; this is a travesty of justice.
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