By DENISSE SALAZAR
The Orange County Register

An eight-month multiagency investigation targeting the use of peer-to-peer networks to exchange graphic images and videos of child pornography ended with 55 charged, including men from several cities in Orange County.

Seven arrests were made Tuesday morning by federal and local agencies. All of the defendants – which include a law enforcement officer, attorneys and men with earlier convictions related to child pornography – are charged with possession of child pornography, authorities said.

Federal authorities said one of the most serious cases involves defendant Gary Samuel Cochran, 50, of Huntington Beach, who is accused of possessing and producing his own child pornography, including pictures he is alleged to have taken of a young girl.

Cochran has been convicted in state court of child molestation and possession of obscene materials depicting minors engaged in sex acts. Because of his record, he faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years in federal prison if convicted of possessing child pornography, and a mandatory minimum sentence of 35 years in prison if convicted of producing child pornography. If convicted of committing these offenses while a registered sex offender, Cochran would receive an additional 10 years in prison.

“There is perhaps nothing more reprehensible than an act in exploitation of children – those members of our society who, because of their age and inexperience, are especially vulnerable to manipulation and deceit,” said Salvador Hernandez, assistant director in charge of the FBI in Los Angeles, in a statement.

“America’s children are its most cherished and valuable resource. The FBI will continue to do all that it can to protect them from those that would rob them of their innocence.”

The 55 suspects charged in the investigation lived in Orange, Los Angeles, Riverside, San Bernardino and Ventura counties.

In addition to possession of child pornography, some of the defendants are charged with additional offenses, such as production of child pornography and committing crimes while registered sex offenders.

Also charged was Eric David Lacey, a 48-year-old man who was living above a child day care facility in Hollywood while being sought in a child pornography case out of North Dakota, which was featured on “America’s Most Wanted,” and Evan Craig Stephens, 36, an Upland man who is a registered sex offender after being previously convicted of child molestation.

The investigation led by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, marks the first time law enforcement has conducted a coordinated sweep broadly targeting peer-to-peer users who share child pornography.

The agencies used sophisticated computer programs to track down computers on which child pornography was being stored and made available to others via peer-to-peer networks like Limewire.

“As criminals exploit technology to commit their crimes – whether it be identity theft, money laundering, distribution of child pornography, or any other criminal conduct – law enforcement will quickly react to develop equally sophisticated means to track down their wrongdoing,” said U.S. Attorney Thomas P. O’Brien.

Robert Schoch, special agent in charge for the Immigration and Customs Enforcement office of investigations in Los Angeles, agreed. “We will do everything in our power and use every tool at our disposal to keep our children safe – whether they are around the block or around the world,” he said.

99.9% I search (and find) for links for music or movies or software I want….. .1% I might be lol desperate enough to use a torrent if I can’t find something after 2 hours of searching.

LimeWire Pro v4.18.5 Retail-ZWT

no password, no download limits

http://www.ziddu.com/download/1966100/limewire.pro.v4.18.5.retail-zwt.rar.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gnutella#General_Specifications

Since mid last year FrostWire has had an advert system added because they claim it costs allot to build FrostWire? like wtf. Its free open source software and they hardly add anything but irc (with adverts) & a blue skin… the FrostWire owner is getting rich off idiots.

If you dont want to get infected dont download .exe files on the network use a good anti-virus such as Kaspersky/Nod32 or BitDefender. And of course learn to actually configure the thing, because it does have settings built in to help filter fake files but these settings are off by default!