凍結 天然氣 火車

I am not a user of recreational drugs, but I have always demanded that people be allowed to use any drugs they want as along as they don't initiate force or fraud against other people.

I am atheist and think all religions are nothing but superstition, but I have always demanded that all people be allowed to believe in any religion as along as they don't initiate force or fraud against other people.

I am not a gun owner, but I have always demanded that all people be allowed to own any weapons they want as along as they don't initiate force or fraud against other people.

I am not a minor, nor do I have a minor that I am have sex with, but I have always demanded that minors and adults be allowed to engage in consensual sex as along as they don't initiate force or fraud against other people.

Last but not least, I don't look at nor have I every looked at child pornography, but I have always demanded that people who do like child pornography be allowed to view it as along as they don't initiate force or fraud against other people.

For that last statement I think I have been demonized by a few hypocrites who claim they demand equal rights for everybody.

I am happy to say that a New York court agrees with me on my position that people should not be jailed for looking at child pornography in the following article.

Source

Viewing child pornography online not a crime: New York court ruling

By Eric Pfeiffer | The Sideshow

In a controversial decision that is already sparking debate around the country, the New York Court of Appeals ruled on Tuesday that viewing child pornography online is not a crime.

"The purposeful viewing of child pornography on the internet is now legal in New York," Senior Judge Carmen Beauchamp Ciparick wrote in a majority decision for the court.

The decision came after Marist College professor James D. Kent was sentenced to prison in August 2009 after more than 100 images of child pornography were found on his computer's cache.

Whenever someone views an image online, a copy of the image's data is saved in the computer's memory cache.

The ruling attempts to distinguish between individuals who see an image of child pornography online versus those who actively download and store such images, MSNBC reports. And in this case, it was ruled that a computer's image cache is not the same as actively choosing to download and save an image.

"Merely viewing Web images of child pornography does not, absent other proof, constitute either possession or procurement within the meaning of our Penal Law," Ciparick wrote in the decision.

See a copy of the court's full ruling on the child pornography decision.

The court said it must be up to the legislature, not the courts, to determine what the appropriate response should be to those viewing images of child pornography without actually storing them. Currently, New York's legislature has no laws deeming such action criminal.

As The Atlantic Wire notes, under current New York law, "it is illegal to create, possess, distribute, promote or facilitate child pornography." But that leaves out one critical distinction, as Judge Ciparick stated in the court's decision.

"[S]ome affirmative act is required (printing, saving, downloading, etc.) to show that defendant in fact exercised dominion and control over the images that were on his screen," Ciparick wrote. "To hold otherwise, would extend the reach of (state law) to conduct—viewing—that our Legislature has not deemed criminal."

The case originated when Kent brought his computer in to be checked for viruses, complaining that it was running slowly. He has subsequently denied downloading the images himself.