United States of America v. Andrew Ewing

Tallahassee, Florida criminal defense lawyer represented the Defendant charged with one count t of knowing

possession of child pornography in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2252A(a)(5)(B), (b)(2).



A grand jury charged Andrew Ewing with a single count of knowing possession of child pornography that involved a prepubescent minor and a minor who had not attained 12 years of age in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2252A(a)(5)(B), (b)(2).



BitTorrent's end user license agreement lets users know that the software will allow other users to download files. To operate, BitTorrent requires, among other things, a torrent file or magnet link, which identifies other users with the sought-after file. After a user downloads a particular torrent file, BitTorrent's tracker associates the device's I.P. address with that file. The torrent file contains instructions to download one or more files. Using the torrent

file and a "tracker” algorithm, the program sources and downloads pieces of files from multiple other users and then combines them into the desired content.



When officers want to ensure that a single-source download occurs, they use Torrential Downpour. The software alters the

choking algorithm to force a single-source download. Torrential Downpour is not available to the public; it's exclusive to law enforcement. An officer inputs a "hash value”—the unique identifier of each video or photo associated with a child pornography file—into Torrential Downpour, then the software searches publicly available information on BitTorrent. That search returns I.P. addresses that have pieces of the file available for download. Then, the officer inputs that I.P. address into Torrential Downpour to force a single-source download of the file from that I.P. address. The main reason police use Torrential Downpour is to connect pornographic material with a single I.P. address. This connection allows law enforcement to establish probable cause for a search warrant more easily. But, in the end, the officer "get[s] no more information than” anyone else who was not using Torrential Downpour.



An officer used Torrential Downpour to download files, which contained child pornography, from Ewing's I.P. address.

Then the police obtained a warrant and seized Ewing's computer.



A grand jury charged Ewing with a single count of knowing possession of child pornography in violation of 18 U.S.C.

§ 2252A(a)(5)(B), (b)(2).



Ewing sought to suppress the photographs and videos on the grounds that law enforcement violated his reasonable expecta-

tion of privacy under the Fourth Amendment.

The Defendant's motion to suppress was denied.



Affirmed