Appeals court: Evidence stands against man who used Tor-enabled child porn site

(credit: Steven Guzzardi)

A federal appeals court has upheld the evidence that lead to the conviction of a Florida man who was sentenced last year to 10 years in prison for accessing a Tor-enabled child porn site, PedoBook.

Lawyers representing Joshua Welch argued on appeal that because prosecutors did not adequately provide him notification of a warrant that enabled investigators to deploy a "network investigative technique," (NIT) that the subsequent evidence should be tossed. Last week, the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the United States District Court of Nebraska's previous ruling in US v. Welch, finding that Welch could not show that he was "prejudiced by the violation or that the investigators recklessly disregarded proper procedure."

The NIT, as Ars has reported previously, is a type of malware designed to unmask Tor users by using a Flash-based exploit. When deployed, it reveals a Tor users' true IP, which through a subpoena can be used to identify a particular person. (This particular Tor vulnerability that allowed the NIT to operate was fixed in 2013.)

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