Court Opinion

ID: 9440606
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-03 16:57:34.474898+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:27:49.080839
License: Public Domain

*781ROGERS, Circuit Judge,
concurring.
I concur in the result and in much of the reasoning of the majority opinion. Defendant makes the categorical argument in this case that identical duplicate images may not be counted separately for the purposes of calculating a sentencing enhancement pursuant to U.S.S.G. § 2G2.2(b)(7). For the reasons given in the majority opinion, we reject this argument.
To reject an argument that duplicate digital images are never to be counted separately, however, does not require us to hold that they are always to be counted separately. It is not necessary for us to decide that broader issue in order to resolve this appeal. Indeed, the Government concedes that certain “thumbnail” duplicate images need not be separately counted. In the instant case, the duplicate images were in a back-up hard drive, thus decreasing the chance that the images would be lost. In that sense, the copies increase the likelihood of further distribution. In such a context, the district court could properly count the digital images separately. It is not necessary for us to rule more broadly that duplicate images must be counted even when their presence on the computer does not increase the likelihood of further distribution.
As a related matter, I think it may be misleading to say that “[pjossessing duplicate digital images does not affect the supply of digital child pornography” and that “possessing duplicate digital images does not increase an individual’s capacity to facilitate wide dissemination of that digital image.” Maj. Op. 780 n.4. While the individual’s ultimate capacity to disseminate may be the same, the likelihood of dissemination is obviously greater in some cases than others. The present instance is a good example: the existence of a backup hard drive increases the risk that the images will be preserved and later viewed by the user or someone else. Similarly, having duplicates in different folders versus the same folder, or in undeleted versus deleted status, can change the likelihood of dissemination.