p2pDURHAM, NC – The United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit has upheld a ninety-seven months sentence imposed by a lower court on a man convicted of possessing child pornography, and in doing so reaffirmed in a 10-page opinion that it concurs with the Seventh, Eighth, and Eleventh Circuits that the use of a peer-to-peer file-sharing program constitutes “distribution.”

The term “distribution” is broadly defined as “any act, including possession with intent to distribute, production, advertisement, and transportation, related to the transfer of material involving the sexual exploitation of a minor.” U.S.S.G.§ 2G2.2 cmt. n.1.

“When knowingly using a file-sharing program that allows others to access child pornography files, a defendant commits an act ‘related to the transfer of material involving the sexual exploitation of a minor,'” the court said.

In recognizing P2P as a method of distribution meant, the Court agreed with the lower court judge’s decision to add two levels to the sentence imposed on Terry Layton for images he made available on his computer to users of WinMX, a file-sharing program.