Frost158 my first question is WHY? Something to do with the help you're receiving?

Your only recourse here is to tell the truth and vigoriously appose the fact that you KNOWINGLY downloaded the stuff. The volume you're talking about makes it pretty clear that this was a minute amount of your collection.

This is no time to skimp on lawyer fees.

Meanwhile be prepared for the worst our society is going through a freaky time on this subject and similar subjects. Today parents see a kidnapper behind every bush. If my memory serves me right there were perhaps 12 or 20 - I can't remember - [I]non-family[I] kidnappings in the US last year.

The keys are to strongly deny you had knowledge that there were underage people in the videos - that you never watched them - it was just part of a compulsive act to hoard the images for which you are now under treatment for. Make sure its emphasized that you willingly turned over the CP without altering its content. You had nothing to fear when doing so.

I wish I was on your jury - but my best advise is if you can plead this out to a misdemeanor do so. But of course listen to your attorney and push him to get the charges dropped if possible.

Have you searched the web for a forum for people who have been unjustly charged or overly punished (the lifetime registration as an example)? Do so and see what help is on-line.

one question i have.. why would the fbi put the files out there? getting legal adult stuff is completley lega, but when you have mislabeling of files, how are we supposed to know? that just doesn't seem fair or right that they would intentionally mislabel files just to catch ppl......

I don't think that they would mislabel them to intentionally catch people for downloading LEGAL adult content, but they might name it something giving it away as being child pornography like the age, GIRL or BOY or anything else....What I am really concerned about is that I have accidentally downloaded some of these files that I would not have downloaded if I would have known that LimeWire was full of child porn, but I just went wild and I got pics that were really trash bin material to me, I am just interested in legal adult photos. And after I have just tried to do a search, most everytime I do search for adult content like 18 yo for example, I get about 10 results that are underage porn at least....and the intentional misnaming thing is pretty bad, I don't know whether that is the FBI doing that or not but mann......I wish there was something to do to stop the child porn. I wouldn't be so nervous right now if there wasn't such a thing. I have accidentally downloaded some of it, I don't know whether the feds have my IP or not.......I just hope to god that nothing legal happens because I had no intention to download those files, and as far as limewire being porn-central, nada. I'm done using it for that after finding out it was plastered with CP and that you can actually be arrested and into some deep stuff with the FBI even if you had no intention of having it in your posession for a few seconds.....

If you just start downloading something immediately the sharer can get your IP I am pretty sure. Just typing the simple netstat command will give you the IP if you know anything basic about your computer and what IP is what....you can get people's IP's and I am just concerned that the feds have gotten my IP from downloading some of this stuff accidentally, because I thought my search just included what I searched for, you type in 18 yo and you get sources that are only 18 yo.....but nope. I just highlight and download them all and then come back to the computer and find that most of the files were CP I was like oh no...and I deleted them and now my whole life is affected because after reading the dummy file thing and then knowing that some people around where I live got caught, it is quite life-disturbing......I can't enjoy it anymore because of the terrible thoughts of being in prison for 5 years I mean I haven't gotten any verification that I was caught with it but I just think that I was because of the FBI being involved with the dummy file distribution, and I probably downloaded one or two at least of their fake files that catches people who download CP....

Depressed-

There's no point in trying to get porn on P2P networks.

Sure, you can get a lot of it but you also get a lot of crap you really don't
want and tons of low quality spam and worms, not to mention the occasional
well-intentioned but ultimately useless traps set by activists and inexperienced
cops or prosecutors looking for a headline and the more dangerous traps set by
blackmailers.

It's far safer and more efficient to get a safe newsgroup reader like
NewsLeecher and browse around the alt.binaries groups. Don't use things like
Outlook or you will probably get infected by the occasional worm and never
download software unless you are actually in a software group. There's still a
lot of spam but once you find a good group and get used to it the spam will be
easy to spot and avoid, especially as the regulars who hang out tend to post
warnings whenever it shows up.

Most importantly, you can't be spied upon by strangers as you browse around,
so if you stumble over something icky you can just delete it and move on.

Yeah....I have just realized that. The quality, and all of the falsely named files aren't worth even trying to download porn on them. Hopefully I will be fine after deletion of all those files, it seems like all of the people who got caught with the porn had at least a hundred or more photos of CP on their computer, and I have really checked the statistics and it looks as though only 15 people were caught from their dummy file distribution and they looked at it, it looks like about a thousand people have formed a case with them for sharing these kinds of files, so it looks like the sharers are the ones they are really going for, not the ones that accidentally download it and delete it immediately......I'm guessing and hoping..

Thorkep

That's pretty much it. You'd have to sit there and share it for a while, and they
probably want to have suspects online and uploading when they break down the
door and start threatening to shoot up the place.

Okay.....that makes me feel much better..... I have heard that people that share things are the ones that are almost ALWAYS caught if it infringes on copyright, but I know child pornography is something much more serious than that. And I think that they aren't that extreme, if they were they would be making their job too hard. They could just do a quick search to see if you have it in your posession and if you do after you have downloaded it, then they may go for it, but I think they may just go for the people who leave their computer sit for days and days and share CP, rather than the people who had no intention of having it or looking at it and deleting it very quickly.

You can not avoid the **** that comes from the web, but I feel that LIMEWIRE should be able to remove this rubbish and anyone who deliberately carries such filth should be wiped off the limewire system. If not I will be one to no longer use a program that supports this. A pity but we have to start somewhere. also it is possible to hack and create hell. I have already been able to get sufficient ID to pass to interpol and some have been prosecuted already. more will follow if more IT experts take the trouble to wipe these porn merchants. They are making more money than the legal clean sites. Worst of all there is no way to protect the innocent.

I like your thinking mate! I try to download a movie (not porn) and it opens a CP pic, SICK! Worst thing was , my 2 and a half year old son was sitting beside me at the time, i got the IP's and sent them off to the ASACP.

The more of these disgusting sons of bitches the Feds know about the better.

LimeWire has no power to reach into people's homes and force them to do
anything, nor does it have the ability to remove anything from the open
network. It is only one of many programs that connects to it.

The ability to let you filter out things you don't like is being added now, so go to
limewire.org and get involved in the beta test program if you really want to help.