As we’ve long known, use of peer to peer file sharing systems is not a wise move if you are concerned about privacy. The motivation to use these programs is to locate and download media of whatever sort you are interested in. That might include mainstream videos and music that are illegally being distributed in this manner. Increasingly child pornographers are using the file sharing services to distribute and store their nasty images and videos. A recent case in the US Court of Appeals found that when you use such a file sharing system and provide access to your computer to those on the outside, you limit your expected level of privacy. The FBI officer who used the same program to find child pornography and downloaded such files from the defendant’s system didn’t conduct an “illegal search and seizure” which would have been in violation of our 4th amendment.
The case, US vs. Borowy, is documented here. The court indicates those using a file sharing system should not expect the computers hosting the programs to be private. The Court cited previous cases where it was found “the use of an aircraft to observe marijuana plants was not a Fourth Amendment search as it only revealed information accessible to any member of the public flying in the airspace”. In this case, anyone of us could download the peer to peer systems and find the illegal material so it is similar to being out in a public, discoverable space.
Interestingly, the defense presented a claim that Borowy had tried to configure the LimeWire program to restrict what files and folders other users could access. He claimed that because his “technical savvy” failed him, he still should be able to claim some privacy. If you consider how complex configuring privacy on various social networking sites has become, I would imagine most of us are failing to set things up the way we want. Will we find ourselves at some future point trying to make similar claims; that “our intentions” for privacy were higher than what we could achieve? I have no sympathy for Borowy, the child pornographer, but I do have sympathy for anyone trying to make sense of technical settings and paying heavy penalties for their inability to do so.