Leaked nude celebrity photos and the Law

[Aquagraph]

Within the last day hackers gained access to nude pictures and videos of certain American celebrities. A certain forum member linked an article on Facebook that suggested criminal punishment not just for the hackers but to everyone who viewed those photos.

The article said:
"It’s an act of sexual violation, and it deserves the same social and legal punishment as meted out to stalkers and other sexual predators."

If possible, with a push of a button, completely for free for taxpayers, would you put all those who have intentionally looked at these pornographic pictures to face charges and take the appropriate punishment?

California stalking laws can penalize this anything from misdemeanor to a felony resulting to 5 years in prison. Sometimes the convicted will become registered sex offenders. It is unlikely that these would become felonies (unless they want to make examples out of the few people they can catch) but is this really the wisest course of action to pursue?

I asked above whether you'd charge all of them for free but let's see how this would realistically go down if the states started to pursue these people. Millions, if not billions, of tax dollars would go to police the internet, enforce charges, fund courts while many of the accused would lose their jobs and become desperate.

If it weren't successful in finding many offenders, it would probably do the same things as it does in piracy which is that it would make examples of few people without decreasing the number of offenders significantly. It would also increase the opportunities to enforce law selectively to individuals, an excellent tool for a police state.

This is a complex social issue and I don't think violence is the answer.

[Aquagraph]

On a serious note, first off - nobody who unknowingly viewed these photos should be convicted of anything. I don't see why they would be punished for being consumers of porn. The question is whether or not the hackers should be punished.

It gets more complicated when you have to determine whether a person viewing a porn site saw one of those pictures without looking for it. How can you tell whether the person in that picture has consented to the publication of that picture?

I could post a pic of my penis anonymously and then see which IPs download and then claim that they are stalkers.

My question about the hackers is, how did they obtain this nude content, and where is it from?

They hacked a service called iCloud.

Were they pictures taken while they were home?

I'm under the impression that most of them are selfies taken indoors.

Were these photos that were posted on the internet? If they were willingly posted, obviously they give up all privacy.

None of them were as far as I know.

[bolong]

Within the last day hackers gained access to nude pictures and videos of certain American celebrities. A certain forum member linked an article on Facebook that suggested criminal punishment not just for the hackers but to everyone who viewed those photos.

The article said:
"It’s an act of sexual violation, and it deserves the same social and legal punishment as meted out to stalkers and other sexual predators."

If possible, with a push of a button, completely for free for taxpayers, would you put all those who have intentionally looked at these pornographic pictures to face charges and take the appropriate punishment?

California stalking laws can penalize this anything from misdemeanor to a felony resulting to 5 years in prison. Sometimes the convicted will become registered sex offenders. It is unlikely that these would become felonies (unless they want to make examples out of the few people they can catch) but is this really the wisest course of action to pursue?

I asked above whether you'd charge all of them for free but let's see how this would realistically go down if the states started to pursue these people. Millions, if not billions, of tax dollars would go to police the internet, enforce charges, fund courts while many of the accused would lose their jobs and become desperate.

If it weren't successful in finding many offenders, it would probably do the same things as it does in piracy which is that it would make examples of few people without decreasing the number of offenders significantly. It would also increase the opportunities to enforce law selectively to individuals, an excellent tool for a police state.

This is a complex social issue and I don't think violence is the answer.

You saw those photos, didn't you.

I wouldn't worry about it, prosecuting everyone who looked at the photos doesn't make ANY sense. They were up on imgur and 4chan before they were taken down.

The lady who wrote that article, which she might have done out of protective or "feminist" or maybe even good intentions, has brought the terrifying prospect of thought persecution to the table. She's also trying to create a dubious moral divide between equally innocent people who are active on the internet, and those who really aren't, and so didn't come anywhere near the pictures and so are safe from any possible crackdown.

[Persephone]

Is it the link @Hitta posted today?

Jail is waiting for me then...

[Aquagraph]

At this moment there are over 75.000 subscribers on a subreddit devoted to these pictures. The most popular torrent for these pictures has 60.000 downloaders and seeders. For those who don't know the way torrents works is that everyone who downloads also uploads so it's not just copying the material, it's distribution. They leaked less than 24 hours ago. It's fairly safe to say that within this month, a million people have knowingly seeked them out and watched them.

Have fun with proving intentionality, policing the internet, destroying lives with legal actions and increasing the national debt to protect the privacy of a few priviledged people while destroying the privacy of internet users even further.

If you are worried about people's sexual privacy, listen to this:
At this moment NSA and it's equivalents around the world are already policing the internet.
This includes taking stills from Skype calls and the like.
This is done without checking their age.
Add the fact that people underage teens have cybersex.

Your governments are probably the biggest collectors of child porn in the world and you're worried about the privacy of a few celebrities?

[bolong]

The discussion we should be having is, why is iCloud so easy to hack into, and what will Apple do about it?

[Aquagraph]

The discussion we should be having is, why is iCloud so easy to hack into, and what will Apple do about it?

The practical ways to increase online security and privacy are more important than "who we should punish".


@William, I think you took my reply more aggressively than it was meant. I think we agree on most stuff when it comes to this.

I still doubt that any of those women would have intentionally given up those pictures. It's more probable than it's the new world and people don't understand how vulnerable information is. However, it's not the core of the issue.

[squirreltual]

Which article?

[Aquagraph]

Which article?

I'll PM it to you. I didn't want to spread it since it further spreads the knowledge of those nudes by actually mentioning the names involvled.

[xerx]

There are so many photoshopped nudes of celebrities that one is bound to look like the real thing... so, in a way, people have already seen these pics.

[squirreltual]

Within the last day hackers gained access to nude pictures and videos of certain American celebrities. A certain forum member linked an article on Facebook that suggested criminal punishment not just for the hackers but to everyone who viewed those photos.

The article said:
"It’s an act of sexual violation, and it deserves the same social and legal punishment as meted out to stalkers and other sexual predators."

If possible, with a push of a button, completely for free for taxpayers, would you put all those who have intentionally looked at these pornographic pictures to face charges and take the appropriate punishment?

The writer was talking about sharing the photos as deserving the same punishment. She described viewing them was "deplorable" but nothing about illegality. That would be silly.

IRL The photos do not need to be torrented. All it really takes is to be careful of what videos you download via torrent and/or your anonymity whilst doing so? I highly doubt the torrenters will be pursued anyhow. All they can do is hope the source slips up somewhere eventually and they can identify and charge him.

The discussion we should be having is, why is iCloud so easy to hack into, and what will Apple do about it?

It isn't, comparatively, as I understand it? The hacker had planned this for a long ass time, quite probably using social engineering. Also there's a high probability of them being an Apple employee. I guess it will bring a lot of awareness to the fact deleted files are still archived and people can make more informed decisions.

[Aquagraph]

The writer was talking about sharing the photos as deserving the same punishment. She described viewing them was "deplorable" but nothing about illegality. That would be silly.

Oh, you're right. I was wrong and over-reacted.

Good.

[Hitta]

an even bigger leak with a bunch of videos is about to come out... the world is about to explode

[xerx]

This is why you don't upload sensitive data onto a cloud server. *Nothing* that requires a browser is fully safe. Keep your stuff offline and encrypted, and possibly six feet underneath an Indian burial ground.

[strangeling]

I'll PM it to you. I didn't want to spread it since it further spreads the knowledge of those nudes by actually mentioning the names involvled.

uhh, can I get a PM too then?

...lol.