While I firmly believe that you’re an asshole if you post to sites like this (hey, you’re making people scared to pose for sexy pictures, idiots), the dude’s a dumbfuck for operating this in the US and on US servers and for using Paypal for collecting extorted monies.
See, people who are this narcissistic and with such evil tunnel vision as this guy generally aren’t that clever. He thought he was invisible.
“At the beginning this was like fun and entertaining,” he said to the agents, “But now it’s ruining my life.”
Aww, poor widdle baby.
It’s kind of ironic that the tag image for this article is a clipped out bit that shows the “sexy tease” banner…
Invincible.
I’ll be interested to see where this goes. Ostensibly the pictures weren’t posted by the D, but were posted by third parties. That makes the identity theft stuff seem like a bit of a stretch. Here are the jury instructions for identity theft in CA:
-
The defendant willfully obtained someone else’s personal
identifying information; -
The defendant willfully used that information for an unlawful
purpose;
AND
- The defendant used the information without the consent of the
person whose identifying information (he/she) was using.
Is having information posted to your site by unaffiliated third parties “willfully obtaining it”?
Is asking money for taking down pictures from a website in itself unlawful? There are a variety of websites that commonly practice this sort of behavior (read: mugshot websites).
Also, the extortion may be a bit tricky for the prosecution to prove, but that will depend a bit on what sort of letters he sent to people trying to get money.
Further, there are some potentially fairly significant federal law/Constiutional issues here. First up, much like the (totally wretched) mugshot websites, these pictures may be protected by the First Amendment.
All of that being said, it is really difficult to know what is going on from reading the complaint only; it would be interesting to see the discovery.
And of course, I am not defending the gentleman in question, just thinking out loud about the legal issues.
P.s. An arrest warrant is the police making their best argument to a judge about why someone should be arrested. It is about as objective/neutral about a person’s guilt or innocence as a real estate agent’s newsletter would be about determining the best time to purchase a home (NOW!). Further, I hope I don’t have to tell anyone here that police are not lawyers or judges (well, sometimes they are also lawyers, but you know what I mean) and don’t always have the finest grasp of the legal issues at stake.
They used harassment laws to prosecute harassment, instead of trying to criminalize first amendment protected speech. Bravo.
Is asking money for taking down pictures from a website in itself unlawful? There are a variety of websites that commonly practice this sort of behavior (read: mugshot websites).
Is extortion unlawful? Well, shit, I don’t take anything for granted in this fucking country anymore, but I should bloody well hope so. If demanding money to prevent the release of compromising data isn’t extortion, then I don’t know what is. Any mugshot website that charges for takedowns is also practicing extortion; it’s just very hard to get victims to cooperate/press charges, because they don’t want the information getting out, because that’s what extortion is.
I’m pretty sure that hosting and distributing child pornography is still illegal in the US. At least I hope so; see above.
If it’s anything like all the other sites of this sort, a very small portion of their images are actually “revenge” photos uploaded by third parties - most are gotten through hacking or deception, and the efforts (or goods) are almost always paid for by the person owning the site.
BTW, can anyone tell me why in the hell this guy is not (so far as I can tell) being charged with anything related to kiddie porn? Is a checkbox for uploaders with “I CERTIFY THAT THE PERSON IN THIS PICTURE IS AT LEAST 18” actually so watertight that they’re not even trying?
“ruining his life”. Yeah, getting arrested is a bummer, and finding out that everybody thinks you’re a total slimeball has to be depressing even if you are a total slimeball.
Also, it’s California, where the Hollywood business has gotten a lot of laws passed about using somebody else’s picture for money, model releases, compensation, etc., and he’s probably violated a bunch of them as well.
Christ what an asshole is an asshole.
Also, do not upload your nudie selfies to the internet. Do not text them to your 18yo boyfriend, who seems totally mature for his age. Do not take them at all.
When you’ve reached the point that even reading the emails of all of the people whose life you’re ruining is ruining your life (even when they are paying you hundreds of pounds for the privilege), you’ve reached asshole level: cartoon Satan.
.
“At the beginning this was like fun and entertaining,” he said to the agents, “But now it’s ruining my life.”
I have never… hang on a minute, let me check… nope, never felt less sympathy for anyone.
If only people were more open to good advice and common sense, alas …
Also, this guy must be completely impervious to irony, whining about other people ruining his life.
That’s quickly come to seem like the best option of all. (No puns intended about coming quickly or whatever.)
IIRC, some of these sites have gotten their content from hacking users’ webcams (via malware) and taking pictures/video without their consent, and pictures that were never uploaded anywhere.
Seems pretty black-and-white that this is extortion, and if found guilty the site owner ought to spend a couple of years in prison.
