Supreme Court Denies Review of Cyberspace Privacy Case

The United States Supreme Court has declined to take up an appeal in Sodomsky v. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.


The original challenge brought by Sodomsky sought to suppress evidence of child pornography found on his computer.


Sodomsky had taken his computer to Circuit City to have a DVD burner installed. The technician doing the work encountered the files, including multiple video files, on Sodomsky's computer. The technician reported the matter to the authorities who then sought to prosecute Sodomsky.


On appeal, the Pennsylvania Superior Court reversed the lower court, which had held that the files were inadmissible.


The Court stated, "If a person is aware of, or freely grants to a third party, potential access to his computer contents, he has knowingly exposed the contents of his computer to the public and has lost any reasonable expectation of privacy in those contents." See 939 A.2d 363, 369 (Pa. Super. Ct. 2008) (emphasis supplied).

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court agreed with the Superior Court's decision, and the U.S. Supreme Court has declined to review the ruling.

Click here for today's Associated Press report picked up by the Mercury News and other publications. For the Superior Court's decision, click here, search using "Sodomsky," and see the opinion dated Feb. 8, 2008.

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