2021-1-21

After a three-day trial, Thomas Alan Arthur, 64, of Terlingua, was convicted of three counts of trafficking in obscene visual representations of the sexual abuse of a child, five counts of trafficking in obscene text stories about the sexual abuse of children, and one count of engaging in the business of selling obscene matters involving the sexual abuse of children.

Thomas ran the Mr. Double text story site.
If appealed, this could be overturned, however I haven't found much about the case or who was involved in his defence.

[Lois]

I was not able to find much.

https://www.newswest9.com/article/news/crime/thomas-arthur-terlingua-website-child-sexual-abuse/513-88345e1d-abb7-4e1e-8654-deddb9cf8af4

But I think was key to his prosecution is that he charged for access, that made him personally liable.  The Red Rose story site was also shut down and the owner prosecuted because she charged for access.

What shields us is that although we have a website, we are not liable for content posted by our members.

The Defendants Attorneys are listed here:

https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/16474654/parties/united-states-v-arthur/

He should have contacted the NCSF

I wonder who he did contact. I haven't read any word.  They surely confiscated his computers. Maybe he is kept imprisoned. Some states have a law requiring the judge to imprison people on child-sex issues -- without opportunity to post bail.

They issued a press release about his conviction.

https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/texas-man-sentenced-40-years-prison-running-child-obscenity-website


AFAICS, he was convicted entirely for fictional works.

[Yukito]

I was not able to find much.

https://www.newswest9.com/article/news/crime/thomas-arthur-terlingua-website-child-sexual-abuse/513-88345e1d-abb7-4e1e-8654-deddb9cf8af4

But I think was key to his prosecution is that he charged for access, that made him personally liable.  The Red Rose story site was also shut down and the owner prosecuted because she charged for access.

What shields us is that although we have a website, we are not liable for content posted by our members.

The Defendants Attorneys are listed here:

https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/16474654/parties/united-states-v-arthur/

He should have contacted the NCSF

It's easy to track if the owner uses normal banking services to charge for access. But, it must have been an insider job, due to the paywall. Unless he was dumb enough to leave teaser content public.

Reading more(due to your source, Lois), I saw that he ran the website from his home, and was tracked by IP, which is easier to track the site origin. Even though I still suspect an insider job got him in hot water, since there would be no way to know what really is behind the paywall without paying or pirating(downloading pages, for example).

Mr. Double and Red Rose are quite unsuspecting names, you don't know what is in the site without getting into the restricted zones. I only learned about the Eunuch Archive content due to a huge wave of tweets.

Another reason that he was caught must be because of the child porn wave that ran on Twitter prior to Elon Musk buying the social network. Fired Twitter moderators were linked to allowing child porn, some were linked to Maxwell's list.

[Guy Fawkes]

I was not able to find much.

I have acquired some documents on these cases, if anyone is interested, I can post an URL from where they can be downloaded.

But I think was key to his prosecution is that he charged for access, that made him personally liable.  The Red Rose story site was also shut down and the owner prosecuted because she charged for access.

That is not strictly accurate. The two cases prior to Mr. Double / Thomas Arthur, were Karen "Red Rose" Fletcher and Frank Russell McCoy.  All three ran their own websites; of those three, only McCoy did not charge for access. Now, it is worthy of note that both Fletcher and Arthur charged for access, albeit for different reasons. Fletcher charged for access to keep the materials out of the hands of minors, whereas Arthur made a business out of story distribution, and for some two decades, his website provided his sole source of income.

Both McCoy and Fletcher were charged with an offense under 18 USC 1462. Arthur was also charged under 18 USC 1466, which covers sales of obscene materials.

18 USC 1462 prohibits the publication of a link to where obscene materials may be found -- McCoy was convicted of this offense in 2013, and he served 18 months in prison for it.

What shields us is that although we have a website, we are not liable for content posted by our members.

Arthur was convicted for publishing four (4) stories, not authored by him, for which he received the maximum sentence of five years imprisonment per count, to be served consecutively -- 20 years in total. Both conviction and sentence on these counts were upheld on appeal. Arthur has filed a plea for certorari (cert) with the United States Supreme Court -- I believe he is appealing on the basis that the trial judge disqualified his only defense witness, and thus cut the legs out from under his defense. I am not at all certain if the Court will grant cert or not. If they fail to do so, the decision of the Appeal Court is final.

The Defendants Attorneys are listed here:

https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/16474654/parties/united-states-v-arthur/

He should have contacted the NCSF

I'm not convinced that this would have done him any good, to be honest.

[Guy Fawkes]

I was not able to find much.

https://www.newswest9.com/article/news/crime/thomas-arthur-terlingua-website-child-sexual-abuse/513-88345e1d-abb7-4e1e-8654-deddb9cf8af4

But I think was key to his prosecution is that he charged for access, that made him personally liable.  The Red Rose story site was also shut down and the owner prosecuted because she charged for access.

What shields us is that although we have a website, we are not liable for content posted by our members.

The Defendants Attorneys are listed here:

https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/16474654/parties/united-states-v-arthur/

He should have contacted the NCSF

It's easy to track if the owner uses normal banking services to charge for access. But, it must have been an insider job, due to the paywall. Unless he was dumb enough to leave teaser content public.

Reading more(due to your source, Lois), I saw that he ran the website from his home, and was tracked by IP, which is easier to track the site origin. Even though I still suspect an insider job got him in hot water, since there would be no way to know what really is behind the paywall without paying or pirating(downloading pages, for example).

I seem to remember that the authorities claimed that there were convicted sex offenders who were users of Mr. Double's site.  I believe the authorities used the identities and login credentials of one or more of these persons to investigate the site.  Even if that were not the case, it would have been a very simple matter for an officer to use an undercover identity and credit-card to subscribe to the site and get access to it that way.

[Yukito]

I was not able to find much.

https://www.newswest9.com/article/news/crime/thomas-arthur-terlingua-website-child-sexual-abuse/513-88345e1d-abb7-4e1e-8654-deddb9cf8af4

But I think was key to his prosecution is that he charged for access, that made him personally liable.  The Red Rose story site was also shut down and the owner prosecuted because she charged for access.

What shields us is that although we have a website, we are not liable for content posted by our members.

The Defendants Attorneys are listed here:

https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/16474654/parties/united-states-v-arthur/

He should have contacted the NCSF

It's easy to track if the owner uses normal banking services to charge for access. But, it must have been an insider job, due to the paywall. Unless he was dumb enough to leave teaser content public.

Reading more(due to your source, Lois), I saw that he ran the website from his home, and was tracked by IP, which is easier to track the site origin. Even though I still suspect an insider job got him in hot water, since there would be no way to know what really is behind the paywall without paying or pirating(downloading pages, for example).

I seem to remember that the authorities claimed that there were convicted sex offenders who were users of Mr. Double's site.  I believe the authorities used the identities and login credentials of one or more of these persons to investigate the site.  Even if that were not the case, it would have been a very simple matter for an officer to use an undercover identity and credit-card to subscribe to the site and get access to it that way.

Exactly. Get in and investigate from within. I saw that part about sex offenders using the site too.