We all walk around with cameras
now all the time because they are in our phones and easy to access. Selfie
camera shots seem to be the most popular shot to take on a camera but with all
that easy access to photographs and the easy way to post them anywhere on the
internet has brought convictions to protect people and their privacy. There is
a controversial industry out there called revenge porn sites where people can
post naked pictures of their ex- lovers. An owner
of such a site was declared guilty in a breaking lawsuit that can change things
quickly.
Women and men fall in love and
send each other naked pictures of each other to help them get through their day
till they get to meet again in the flesh. Yes, it sounds harmless, private and
fun until things go wrong in a relationship and what was once a personal photo
ends up on a porn site for all to see. Love turns into hate into revenge and then a
nightmare. A 28 year old man, Kevin Bollaert, was convicted in a San Diego courtroom of 6
counts of extortion and 21 counts of identity theft for owning a site that posted
naked pictures of ordinary people. People who didn’t even know their photo was
there and who didn’t consent to the exposure. He was trying to run the site to
profit from subscribers.
Kamala Harris, the California
Attorney General is getting tough on this issue. She says to bring your
toothbrush to court because you might be going to jail that night. Kevin posted
thousands of nude and explicit photos of women on his website called You Got
Posted .com. without their permission. He also went further and opened another
website called Change My Reputation.com where they had to pay up to $300
dollars to remove images. It is a landmark conviction where Kevin Bollaert
faces over 20 years in jail. The conviction is a victory for a growing list of
law enforcers who were stuck not being able to do anything to stop offensive
sites that operate in unsure legal territory.
Is Anyone Up.com is another of
the hundreds of offensive sites up and running on the Internet. Most of the
pictures are posted against the women’s will and that the humiliation of the
women is part of the thrill of posting the shots. Texxxan.com made some women feel trapped because they
didn’t know who saw them and didn’t know how many sites they were on. When one
site closes down two more sites open up. California along with other states
have now passed legislation to make revenge porn sites illegal but in most of
the country most of the laws are inconsistent. We like to constantly criticize our
President who ever he is at the time but the real criticism lies in the lack of
the Supreme Court and Congress to do their job to unify this country so that the
same laws apply to all states on any subject from pot to porn to murder
convictions.
In general the government has
been terrible in keeping pace with technological innovations. The technology is evolving faster than
regulation is evolving to deal with it. In a rare move the Federal Trade
Commission has gotten into the fight. Just last week another revenge porn site
called Is Anybody Down? .com was ordered to remove some 1,000 nude photos allegedly
posted without the victims consent. The world of revenge porn also known as
involuntary porn is a strange one owned by seemingly ordinary men just looking
to make money on a website. The owner of
Is Anyone Up? .com Hunter Moore said he organized the site just for public
humiliation purposes. He is probably someone’s boyfriend who got dumped badly. He
has been arrested for hacking & identity theft.
There is now a small army of
women organizing to get these sites off the Internet as fast as they can.
Lawyers call them Anti-Revenge Porn Activists.
They spend much of their time tracking down the victims and keeping them
informed. The victims must consent to moving forward with a law suit. If
convicted, Hunter Moore can be facing 45 years in prison. He still thinks
humiliation is a good business model. He is not even allowed to use the
Internet now. Let’s hope they put this guy away and throw away the key.
Meanwhile, how about you keep the camera away from your nude body.
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