The following excerpt is from United States v. Baldwin, No. 13-163-cr (Lead), No. 13-335-cr (Con) (2nd Cir. 2014):
2. We do not foreclose a finding of knowledge on the basis that a defendant was willfully ignorant as to how a P2P file-sharing program operated. Cf. United States v. Svoboda, 347 F.3d 471, 477-78 (2d Cir. 2003) ("The conscious avoidance doctrine provides that a defendant's knowledge of a fact required to prove the defendant's guilt may be found when the jury is persuaded that the defendant consciously avoided learning that fact while aware of a high probability of its existence. In such circumstances, a conscious avoidance instruction to the jury permits a finding of knowledge even where there is no evidence that the defendant possessed actual knowledge." (internal quotation marks and citations omitted)).
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