Revenge Porn Site Kingpin Pummeled With Stiff 18-Year Prison Sentence For Extortion
Just in case there's a shred of doubt, posting sexually explicit photos or videos of your ex-lover without his or her permission is not okay. The practice, known as revenge porn, is a cowardly way of seeking vengeance for whatever wrong an ex is perceived to have made. And not only is revenge porn in poor taste, it's also becoming increasingly illegal as new laws aim to crack down the behavior.
One of them landed Kevin Bollaert, a former revenge porn website owner, an 18-year prison sentence. According to the Pittsburg Post Gazette, the 28-year-old allowed over 10,000 nude and sexually explicit photos to be posted to his now defunct website, UGotPosted.com. He encouraged scorned exes to post such images and had them include personal information, such as the subjects' names, addresses, and links to their Facebook pages.
The pictures were mostly of women, who Bollaert would then email with an offer to take down the images for up to $350. These offers came from a second site of his called ChangeMyReputation.com, which is also now defunct. The report doesn't mention whether or not he also identified himself as the owner of the UGotPosted domain, though we're guessing he presented himself as a third party.
Either way, his scheme didn't work. He went to trial in February in California Superior Court in San Diego where 21 victims testified against him. Bollaert was ultimately charged with 21 counts of identify theft and half a dozen counts of extortion.
Nevertheless, it's a tough situation for victims of revenge porn. Website owners typically are not responsible for what content other people post because of the Communications Decency Act. However, an increasing number of states are waking up to the issue and drafting laws to protect people against this sort of thing.
Bollaert happened to be running his extortion racket from California, one of 17 states with laws on the books regarding revenge porn. He was arrested two months after the law went into effect, though he ended up being charged with identity theft and extortion.
In addition to new laws, individual websites are cracking down on revenge porn, as both Twitter and Reddit recently added rules banning the behavior.
One of them landed Kevin Bollaert, a former revenge porn website owner, an 18-year prison sentence. According to the Pittsburg Post Gazette, the 28-year-old allowed over 10,000 nude and sexually explicit photos to be posted to his now defunct website, UGotPosted.com. He encouraged scorned exes to post such images and had them include personal information, such as the subjects' names, addresses, and links to their Facebook pages.
The pictures were mostly of women, who Bollaert would then email with an offer to take down the images for up to $350. These offers came from a second site of his called ChangeMyReputation.com, which is also now defunct. The report doesn't mention whether or not he also identified himself as the owner of the UGotPosted domain, though we're guessing he presented himself as a third party.
Either way, his scheme didn't work. He went to trial in February in California Superior Court in San Diego where 21 victims testified against him. Bollaert was ultimately charged with 21 counts of identify theft and half a dozen counts of extortion.
Nevertheless, it's a tough situation for victims of revenge porn. Website owners typically are not responsible for what content other people post because of the Communications Decency Act. However, an increasing number of states are waking up to the issue and drafting laws to protect people against this sort of thing.
Bollaert happened to be running his extortion racket from California, one of 17 states with laws on the books regarding revenge porn. He was arrested two months after the law went into effect, though he ended up being charged with identity theft and extortion.
In addition to new laws, individual websites are cracking down on revenge porn, as both Twitter and Reddit recently added rules banning the behavior.
