The Fourth Amendment gives men and women a correct against unreasonable searches and seizures:

The correct of the men and women to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the location to be searched, and the persons or issues to be seized.

Given this language, what protections are afforded to people who are participating in peer-to-peer sharing networks, such as BitTorrent, LimeWire, GigaTribe, and other services. The answer is: not a lot of. If you have a question about this issue, feel totally free to contact Wilmington criminal lawyer Damon Chetson about the matter.

In U.S. v. Katz, the Supreme Court set out the general principle that a search only occurs when 1) a person expects privacy and 2) society believes that expectation is reasonable. The key prong is no matter whether the expectation of privacy is “reasonable.”

As CYB3RCRIM3, a blog on technology and the law notes, the United States Supreme Court has consistently and repeatedly held that no search occurs where police might be employing peer-to-peer technologies or file-sharing software to peer into your laptop or computer to see what may be on there. That’s because given that you are sharing the contents or some of the contents of your computer with the world, you have given up your expectation of privacy.

Even where you have taken measures to block particular access, if police are able to evade those firewalls or blocks by making use of the file-sharing or peer-to-peer software to look into your laptop or computer, such police actions do not constitute searches.

CYB3RCRIM3 notes that in a recent Federal District Court opinion (WL 010 WL 14427523) from Massachusetts, the court denied a challenge to the search warrant, which was predicated on a police officer’s warrantless look into a laptop or computer by way of file-sharing technologies, by saying that due to the fact the Defendant, David Ladeau, had installed Gigatribe and, by doing so, enabled the sharing of info and filing on his pc with other Gigatribe users.

The Court wrote:

No matter how strictly Ladeau controlled who accessed his . . .files, he had no control over what those individuals did with info about the files when he granted them access. . . . .Once Ladeau turned over the details about how to access the network to a third party, his expectation of privacy in the network became objectively unreasonable. Due to the fact the files he claims had been private had been made accessible to anybody on the network, his expectation of privacy in those files was also objectively unreasonable. Ladeau bore the risk that any person who had access to his Gigatribe network would provide information to the police about illegal acts occurring on the network. As a consequence, he also bore the risk that such a person would enable the police to access the network and download any files Ladeau created accessible for download….

Everyone making use of file sharing software program – from LimeWire to Gigatribe to BitTorrent – ought to be conscious that they have given up any expectation of privacy, and that police have no cost run to look into one’s laptop or computer.

Apex criminal lawyer Damon Chetson defends men and women charged with felonies, misdemeanors, traffic and DWI charges in Raleigh, Cary, and Apex, NC. DWI Raleigh lawyer Damon Chetson is offered day or night, weekdays or weekends. He can be reached for a totally free consultation (919) 352-9411.