Adam Steinbaugh writes:
Kevin Bollaert was sentenced by a San Diego court to 18 years in prison following his February conviction on twenty-seven counts of extortion and identity theft. Bollaert was the chief operator of YouGotPosted.com (later uGotPosted.com), which published the nude photos of over ten thousand men and women, almost uniformly without their permission.
Bollaert, with his partner Eric Chanson 1, monetized his site with both advertisements and a more devious plan. He launched ChangeMyReputation.com, which ‘advertised’ on YouGotPosted as an independent service which could remove the photos from YouGotPosted in exchange for a few hundred dollars. I wrote about Bollaert’s site before his arrest, demonstrating that he operated both YouGotPosted and ChangeMyReputation.com.
Read more on Adam’s blog, but do read his post all the way through, as Adam suggests that Bollaert can win on appeal on the basis that his criminal prosecution is barred by §230. It’s an interesting argument/analysis, and I look forward to reading what others think of his argument. But if he’s right, I suspect state legislatures will be rushing to address that so that these folks can be prosecuted criminally.