Csam Downloads

[Noah Casanova]

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Do Internet Service Providers (ISP) have the duty of, being notified by Law Enforcement Authorities of an IP address uploading and downloading Child Sexual Abuse Materials (CSAM) through a torrent protocol, standing aside and look?

In a paper presented in an Internet conference taking place in 2008 in Greece, a great team of computer researchers (composed, also, by one researcher specialized in the so-called peer-to-peer (P2P) protocols) is presenting the world a finding that is, by all means, intriguing: (see Dischinger et al., 2008, Detecting BitTorrent Blocking)

Proxyfied or not, the fact is that Internet Protocols Addresses (IPs) are yet an important part of the BitTorrent protocol and that ISP can, through a series of patterns of observation, determine if one is using a P2P protocol or not.

What is, though publicly available, not so publicly compiled within the stakeholders is the what-is-what and who-downloads-what information: A Big Data problem, distributed within different spheres of legal interest and which creates a missing opportunity for blocking CSAM downloads and uploads in torrent-based networks before they reach hundreds, thousands or files until the next day.

Notwithstanding, you may agree with me that if an ISP is able to identify BitTorrent activity (through methods that vary, accordingly to Dischinger et al. (2008) finding, from ports to protocol messages), it may be able to stop violating IPs (an information that LEA has or should have) to keep operating, with illegal purposes, on the P2P network: Be this IP proxyfied or not.

On November 8, 2023 while conducting undercover operations into the sharing of child pornography online, a computer was located which was displaying an IP Address which resolves to Perkasie Borough. Several files containing Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM) were downloaded from this computer. Following these downloads, a search warrant for all electronic devices was served at the residence where the IP Address is registered. The owner of the devices in question was determined to be Donald Leslie Foster of Perkasie, PA. Between November 2023 and February 2024, a computer utilizing this IP Address downloaded or attempted to download CSAM on more than 80 occasions. Donald Foster was taken into custody on February 2, 2024 and was processed on 1 count of Sexual Abuse of Children (Possession of Child Pornography), 1 count of Sexual Abuse of Children (Dissemination of Child Pornography), and 1 count of Criminal Use of a Communication Facility. Foster was arraigned before Magisterial District Judge Stacy Wertman, and was remanded to Bucks County Correction Facility on $100,000.00/10% secured bail. The Warrington Township Police Department would like to thank the following for their assistance in this investigation: Homeland Security Investigations, Perkasie Borough Police Department, New Britain Township Police Department, Hilltown Township Police Department, as well as the FBI's Regional Computer Forensics Laboratory.

A 57-year-old pastor in Texas will spend years behind bars after he admitted to having a trove of BDSM and bestiality-themed child sexual abuse material (CSAM), some of which authorities said he downloaded and saved on a computer belonging to his church. U.S. District Judge Robert Pitman on Thursday ordered David Lloyd Walther to serve a sentence of six years in a federal correctional facility, court records reviewed by Law&Crime show

Investigators said they traced downloads of the CSAM to an IP address connected to the Faith Baptist Church in Round Rock, Texas, where Walther was the pastor. Round Rock is about 20 miles north of Austin.

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