Defendants often argue that they cannot be convicted of knowingly possessing child pornography because the computer cache, not they, saved the file to the hard drive.

Giannina Marin’s Possession of Child Pornography: Should You Be Convicted When the Computer Cache Does the Saving for You?   60 Fla. L. Rev. 1205 (Dec. 2008),  discusses the  possession of digital images, specifically child pornography.  The author believes that the source of a large part of the difficulty faced by courts in determining if a defendant possessed digital images arises because they do not understand computers well enough.  Defendants often argue that they cannot be convicted of knowingly possessing child pornography because the computer cache, not they, saved the file to the hard drive.  Courts have truly struggled with this argument, issuing opinions that do not truly reflect the defendant-computer interaction.
       This note explains the process of viewing and downloading images through a computer and what dissects what the computer is actually doing.  Armed with the knowledge of what computer processes were prompted by the defendant and which ones happen automatically, the note then compares digital possession to traditional possession.  The author demonstrate that the two scenarios are very similar and, with the proper knowledge, a determination regarding possession can be easily made.  The author concludes that a defendant possesses child pornography when he intentionally searches for and accesses an image of child pornography, regardless of whether he intentionally saves it to his hard drive or just views it “online.”