Revenge Beginning on Revenge Porn

Over the past few years a host of web sites known as “Revenge Porn” have cropped up where the ex-partner of a woman could post nude pictures of their ex with personal details including their name, age, address, and links to their social network sites. These sites would then charge the pictured women a fee from $300 to $500 to have their pictures removed from the site. These sites became a form of “free speech” blackmail” if you will.

Last year California enacted the country’s first revenge porn law, making it a crime to post a naked picture of a woman without her consent and with intent to cause emotional harm. Since the passage of the law in California, a dozen states have followed suit to outlaw this cruel and childish behavior by ex boyfriends.

Yesterday in California, a San Diego man, 28-year-old Kevin Bollaert, was the first person convicted in the state for running a revenge porn site, although he was actually convicted under Extortion and ID theft laws. Convicted on 27 felony counts, he could face fines up to $27,000 and face prison when he comes up for sentencing.

Bollaert ran the web site “yougotposted.com” along with two sites where you could go to have the pictures removed for $350.

In other Revenge Porn news, last week the FTC came to a settlement with a Colorado man, Craig Brittain of Colorado Springs to cease running similar web sites, “isanybodydown.com.” Again, the man ran “reputation cleaning” sites charging $200 to $500 to have the pictures removed from his site.

In more Revenge Porn news, the law firm of K&L Gates has set up cyber civil rights division where their lawyers can volunteer to help victims of revenge porn sue the poster of their pictures. Using copyright and defamation laws, as well as revenge porn laws, the lawyers go after the men who are abusing these women.

I applaud K&L Gates for being in the forefront of trying to stop this online activity. Revenge porn is not a funny way to get back at an ex, but rather a sleazy insult to their privacy rights that can harm and follow a victim of this act for years.

Finally, I hope these convictions and other pending law suits will convince operators of these types of sites that it is a business model guaranteed to cost them tens of thousands of dollars in legal fees as well as criminal chargers. Once the operators of these sites see what these men have gone through, I bet the many other sites offering the same kinds of revenge will shut them down before they too are charged with similar crimes.