For whatever set of reasons, it's not often that we come across reversals of convictions related to child-pornography.

But the Supreme Court of Oregon on Thursday overturned the convictions related to child pornography of two men on similar grounds. The court, in a 5-2 decision, ruled that it's not a crime to look at child pornography on the Internet if none of the images are purposefully downloaded, printed out or paid for. Click herefor the Oregonian story. Click hereand herefor the opinions.

The high court pointed out, for starters, that Oregon law on such images is different than it is in other states. While some states have specifically outlawed the mere viewing of child pornography, Oregon lawmakers only outlaws viewing if someone pays for it.

The larger holding reached by the court on Thursday concerned the definition of "possession" of child pornography. The court ruled that simply looking at photos on a website does not mean a person possessed the photos.

Looking for something on the Internet is like walking into a museum to look at pictures  the pictures are where the person expected them to be, and he can look at them, but that does not in any sense give him possession of them, wrote Justice Michael Gillette.