I'm not surprised. Considering I work with Tor extensively, along with cryptocurrencies and other 'interesting stuff', I guess I fit right in with the tech crowd on there.
I'm all for just punishment, from which I think pedophilia is most certainly a crime. It gets... fuzzy around a lot of areas though, especially after puberty up to 17. The law, frankly, is just a total mess. Sex- OK, sext- CP, fake license- pedophilia.... on and on.
Homosexuality was viewed as psychiatric disorder not too long ago as well. Although some people still think it is - are you one of them?
Whether that is a mental health asylum, prison, or somewhere/somehow else, so be it.
I don't think they should be abused either, as it's a popular trend in the penal system to use rape as an informal deterrent for criminals.
Or do you believe that e.g. audiophiles hump their speakers, and bibliophiles use the library for public orgies?
Well, yes. But only because it's really easy to imagine after browsing their forums.
I'm curious what the laws / regulations would be for general social media, image hosts, and other businesses that host user content. It's pretty much a given that at some point, there will probably be some illegal content uploaded onto it (including potentially child pornography). In some ways, a Tor exit node sort of falls under that same boat: you are indirectly passing information generated / requested by users.
Now, Twitter or Facebook doesn't going to get raided / computers confiscated every time an illegal image passes through their network. But I'm sure the police may ask questions during investigations (and I'm sure the companies comply as best they can). So I honestly think what happened here is fine. (I'd think differently if the police automatically confiscated computers and trashed houses of Tor exit nodes for no reason.)
I'm sure I'm sitting nice and pretty on several lists.
In honestly though, you're not wrong. Richard Stallman has his controversial stance on child porn as well and I tend to agree with him. It is really really bizarre that modern western society doesn't seem to have a problem with video of soldiers shooting up little kids in Baghdad, yet a picture of a teenager showing her breasts to her boyfriend via text is instant grounds for being locked up (in Australia there is a zero tolerance police and teenagers have gone to jail and are on sex offender registries for just that; although their sex offender databases are confidential and not as fucked up as America's).
However, sexual assault on children is a heinous crime. It's sad and destroys the lives of kids who parents hope to keep from getting tainted by the world as long as possible. It's not unjustified to hate this crime to the degree which it is, but it's also kinda bizarre we don't treat videos of kids getting shot the same way. People get off on that stuff too; sexually.
What's even more interesting about this case is that the police knew CP was downloaded from his IP address. That might because the United States has mandatory ISP reporting, or potentially his IP was found on a raided website:
http://chartsbin.com/view/q4y
I'm more interested in how that information was obtained, and whether that process involved violating the rights of individuals of people not associated at all with any crimes.