Quote:
Originally Posted by HarryT
Do you have the concept of "common endeavour" in legal cases in the US? In the UK, if the police know that a crime was committed by someone among a group of people, but don't know specifically who did the actual deed, they can all be charged with the crime in that they did not actively take any action to prevent it. Common Endeavour is especially common in assault or murder cases, where a group of people attack someone, but there's no way to know who specifically struck the blow that did the injury.
It occurs to me that it could also be applied to cases such as this, where you know that someone in a specific group of people downloaded illegal material, but you cannot be certain which specific individual it was. It would be difficult to show that the other users of a shared computer were not aware of illegal downloads made on it.
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I'm reminded of a law that was passed in the State on Maine, USA back in the sixties. It was "Being present where marajuana is used." It was a class two or three felony, and didn't survive the first court test.