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At page 250 of the report, the mechanics of obtaining of the
pornographic material and its dissemination are described. The court,
in considering the law on the matter, found that Fellows had created an
archive of data stored in the hard disc of the computer derived from
pornographic photographs of children, which could be downloaded by
other computers whose operators knew the correct password. That is
similar to the way this Appellant operated.
The court in Fellows was obliged to consider issues of
statutory interpretation and in doing so, referred to an earlier case
Attorney General’s Reference (No.5 of 1980) (1981) 72 Cr. App. R. 71
[1980] 3 All ER 816. There the court had to decide whether a person
who provided screen images derived from a video-tape published an
obscene article, contrary to section 2 of the 1959 Act.
The defendant’s argument that an offence under section 2
could only be committed when a conventional i.e. celluloid film was
shown, played, or projected on screen was rejected. The “article”
complained of was a video-cassette containing magnetised tape which,
when played, emitted electric signals causing images to be displayed on
screen. The system did not involve projecting light onto a screen as for
earlier film. Nevertheless, the court held that the video cassette was an
article which produced pictures or sounds within the meaning of the Act
and said that the words “play” or “project”, if not “show”, were wide
enough to describe what happened when pictures were produced by this
means.