Internet file sharing is just that — sharing files with other users — and it can amount to illegal offering and distributing when the files are child pornography, a state appeals court ruled Tuesday.
Though the defendant didn’t affirmatively offer the materials or seek out people to take them, a fact finder could see the act of placing the files in a shared folder online, where others might access them, as “offering” or “providing” under New Jersey’s child endangerment statute, the Appellate Division ruled in State v. Lyons , A-4893-09.
