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This Is the National Revenge Porn Law We Need

The United States has been waiting too long for federal law banning revenge porn. The wait will be over soon. In the coming weeks, Congresswoman Jackie Speier will introduce a bill that would make revenge porn a federal crime—finally.

"Today it's possible to ruin someone's life with the click of a button, by publishing another person's private images without their consent," Rep. Speier told me. "Our laws haven't yet caught up with this crime."

The bill, set to be introduced this spring, would make revenge porn a federal crime. It's designed to create new criminal statutes that not only apply to the people who run revenge porn sites but also criminal liability to the individuals who upload and share the content, which is where things get controversial: Even sites that unwittingly host links to the content, like Facebook and Google, could face criminal penalties for enabling distribution. Those penalties will be determined on a sliding scale of sleaziness. While there will be no minimum penalty, for revenge porn bill will set a maximum penalty for revenge porn offenses that will include jail time.

The hurdles on Capitol Hill

Of course, Speier's revenge porn bill is not yet a law, and while it's hard to imagine who would condone the practice of publishing naked photos of someone out of spite—often with personally identifiable information about the victim—a law banning revenge porn stands to be controversial on Capitol Hill. Long story short, it could threaten existing laws designed to protect free speech.

The American Civil Liberties Union has already challenged Arizona's law criminalizing revenge porn for violating the First Amendment. But Speier's bill goes to great lengths to be very specific about what constitutes revenge porn. It puts it in a similar category as child pornography, a type of speech basically everyone can agree is destructive.


There's still a good chance the bill will pass. There are many signs that's there's a public demand to crack down on the vile practice.

Sixteen states have already passed their own legislation banning revenge porn. In December, a California court sent a man named Noe Iniguez to jail for year after he published naked photos of his ex-girlfriend on her employer's Facebook page; he was the first to be sentenced under California's new revenge porn law. Earlier this month, 28-year-old Kevin Bollaert became the first person in the country convicted under state law for running a revenge porn website. (The sicko also ran another website that charged victims $350 to have the nude photos removed.)

Overseas, the UK just passed a law making revenge porn a crime punishable by up to two years in prison. This happened around the time that Japanese authorities arrested the first man suspected of violating the anti-revenge porn law passed last November. Meanwhile, the European Union's "right to be forgotten" law could lead to a ban on the entire continent.

Even the Federal Trade Commission has effectively banned revenge porn websites. With such precedent, it's almost surprising Congress hasn't acted sooner. But things aren't so simple on the federal level.

I don't think you need a law against revenge porn.
Laws on people's privacy should be strengthened.

What the heck is revenge porn? My imagination is not big enough for this topic I guess?

I don't see how people view this as a threat to free speech, which are the only grounds I see as a valid objection to the law. In making that argument, you're arguing that your right to publish someone's naked image trumps their right to privacy. Your rights concerning yourself always trump someone else's rights over you. I see no merit in the argument being presented on free speech grounds, unless someone has a novel take on it?

In [1798 P.E.A.], the Emperor Augustus turned his attention to social problems at Rome. Extravagance and adultery were widespread. Among the upper classes, marriage was increasingly infrequent and, many couples who did marry failed to produce offspring. Augustus, who hoped thereby to elevate both the morals and the numbers of the upper classes in Rome, and to increase the population of native Italians in Italy, enacted laws to encourage marriage and having children (lex Julia de maritandis ordinibus), including provisions establishing adultery as a crime.

Has anyone considered how simple of a task it would be to upload photos of ones self and accuse another of doing so? This also seems like it will have a chill effect on anyone hosting photos or video nudity of any kind. IMO this is more of the same from the female supremacist movement operating under the guise of "feminism". Since pornography is largely consumed by males, and this law gives any women a free ticket to send a male to prison for any reason she decides simply by posting a nude photo of herself and claiming he did it, this clearly seems to be intended to subjugate men in a very real way, not just being ashamed people have seen you nude.

(Red colorization mine.)


(Blue colorization mine.)

Law is utilized in the manufacture of society, not merely the defense of conscious debate.

Not relevant to my point.

"Victims" of revenge porn are simply either too vain, or just stupid, or both. (The plague of recent generations.) Older generations were protected somewhat, from their stupidity being immortalized, by the lack of technology and no internet.

Even if this law is passed, it won't change the fact if you have been immortalized in this way. The best way to protect yourself from revenge porn (or being hacked or your little brother finding your porn stash) is, DON'T MAKE PORN VIDEOS.  ::)

(Red colorization Goodsense.)

And so egregiously deny humanity so critical a dialogue on their human condition as that‽‽ :o :o

Can you still upload images of people who were never your ex girlfriends? My friend from Pakistan sends me his images and I send him my images... He has no reasons to be mad at my ex girlfriends and vice versa...

Not revenge porn.

  8)

Revenge p is bad but yet an other law!
And if you send images to a friend or you got hacked and there is no reason to think it was revenge p, would you be accountable for that?

This is exactly my point, there are a lot of grey area scenarios where people could get wrapped up in serious criminal charges for something not intended as a form of harassment, mistakes, or hacks of ones ow personal files. In short this makes anyone with pornography potentially liable.

Is it safe from the guy who develops the film? Some places even have a policy of not developing nudes.

Its a stupid law , and that is just an understatement. One could exploit this to infinity, since there is no way of prooving that person charged with uploading the content
really did the act of uploading. Just because something is posted from your account doesnt mean u did it, and prooving innocence would be tough aswell.
Its dumb to record porn of any sort and then whine about it, another case is when the other party doesnt know its being recorded, but thats another thing.

cheers

Definition from Nolo’s Plain-English Law Dictionary

One of the most sacred principles in the American criminal justice system, holding that a defendant is innocent until proven guilty. In other words, the prosecution must prove, beyond a reasonable doubt, each essential element of the crime charged.
Definition provided by Nolo’s Plain-English Law Dictionary. (http://www.nolo.com/dictionary/presumption-of-innocence-term.html)

(Red colorization mine.)



Don’t worry: in the U.S., the burden of “proof” is borne by the prosecution. ::)

Can you still upload images of people who were never your ex girlfriends? My friend from Pakistan sends me his images and I send him my images... He has no reasons to be mad at my ex girlfriends and vice versa...

Not revenge porn.

  8)

Claiming that one's computer been hacked is always a good defense :).

Everyone most use there brain and don't put yourself in a position for this to happen to them.

Everyone most use there brain and don't put yourself in a position for this to happen to them.

Everyone most use there brain and don't put yourself in a position for this to happen to them.