Leaked nude celebrity photos and the Law
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.