10 ms·

One Woman's Dangerous War Against the Most Hated Man on the Internet

240 points by co_pl_te 13y ago

SilasX 13y ago
>People claimed to be afraid of him. He had no fear oflawsuits; he knew a victim would be unlikely to sue because a civil suit would cost $60,000 (according to attorney Marc Randazza) Why do we allow that kind if situation to persist? What can be done about it?
- ars 13y ago
  It's tough to do anything because what if the suit was false? You can't just assume the suer is correct and deserves protection. There is a right for someone to face their accuser, and you can't make them pay just because they were accused. For the money issue there are charities that do help. Regarding the name part perhaps a judge can seal or redact the record?
  - SilasX 13y ago
    I was asking about the $60k issue. Why is it so expensve even in the most clear-cut case? And it looks like charity really can't fill the void in this case.
- lem72 13y ago
  I have no idea if EFF would be down to help in this, but i wouldn't put it past them for helping in situations like this. https://www.eff.org/work https://www.eff.org/work Definitely a worthy cause to donate to.
- rohu1990 13y ago
  I was thinking the same, does this mean only rich has the right to get justice ? And others must keep calm and suffer ?
chris_wot 13y ago
I am surprised that someone didn't injure the man, or worse.
- pstuart 13y ago
  Revenge is a dish best served cold.
- josephagoss 13y ago
  Wikipedia says one of the victims stabbed him, but there are no citations.
  - michaelochurch 13y ago
    Could be, or he could have made it up. Source: your resident trolling expert. (There are two ways to parse that.)
    - brokenparser 13y ago
      your raisin rolling expert? you reside nt roll in gex per t? This doesn't make sense, in what other language besides English would this be parsable?
      - Kliment 13y ago
        That the poster is expert at trolling, that is, very accomplished as a troll OR that the poster is an expert in understanding trolls and can thus speak with authority about them.
  - tommorris 13y ago
    I've added some: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Hunter_Moore&diff=583069688&oldid=583059482 https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Hunter_Moore&diff...
- fallingOff 13y ago
  In all seriousness, I look forward to a world with assassination markets every time I read a story like this.
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gnu8 13y ago
I emailed the site owner, Hunter Moore, and asked him to take down the photo in accordance with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. He refused. Would it be to much trouble for these people to learn how to use the DMCA properly? Obviously he is not going to turn his own web site off.
- techsupporter 13y ago
  I'm pretty familiar with the DMCA and I'm not 100% sure that I could keep it straight with the prospect of my personal and professional reputation crashing down around me because of some jackass illegally cracking into an account I owned and blasting out personal data. Sadly, we're all having to become lawyers now.
- TillE 13y ago
  Since we're obviously talking about a very determined scumbag, it'd be too easy to just host outside the US. Copyright law often does apply in this kind of situation, but it's still not a great solution. Need more attention to privacy rights.
  - chris_wot 13y ago
    Then he won't be covered under the safe harbour provisions of the DMCA.
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spindritf 13y ago
How was Gary Jones hacking those e-mail accounts? How was Black Lotus blocking assets (pages, images) on Moore's website? And why was a security company he hired(?) working against him?
- scotty79 13y ago
  Answer to the last question is: probably because he was crminal and an asshole and tech people tend to be disagreeable with that. Paying customer or not. We are not lawyers.
- krenoten 13y ago
  I'd assume he's just a botmaster that happens to automate creepy scanning of compromised email accounts for such images, but the fact that 2 of the victims knew each other suggests that he could be doing targeted phishing on new targets that he identifies while browsing accounts. I'm not familiar with Black Lotus, but looking at their page for http://www.blacklotus.net/protect/protection-for-gear http://www.blacklotus.net/protect/protection-for-gear suggests that they basically act as a proxy for a customer's service, preventing malicious traffic from burdening the server. Because whatever goes in or out must pass through them first, they can decide not to allow certain things out if they are not comfortable with it.
- meowface 13y ago
  "Gary Jones" is/was likely a script kiddie who spread malware and carefully looked for nude pictures on the hard drives and accounts he gained access to. Basically he went after low-hanging fruit. If he did target anyone, it was probably phishing ("click here!") through Facebook messages or emails.
- caf 13y ago
  Does anyone not think that Gary Jones is just a Hunter Moore alias?
marvin 13y ago
A somewhat related note is that America's culture of sex-negativity, shame and general hysteria around nudity is a required prerequisite for this type of bullying and abuse. Look at the following paragraph: > Jill became hysterical, repeating, "Oh, my God. No. Oh, my God. No." This is, obviously, the reaction of someone who fears repercussions from others. And this is for completely harmless acts (taking nude photos), which almost everyone does these days. And with good reason. Society in the US clamps down hard on people (women to a greater degree, but also men) who have the audacity to express their sexuality. That this expression was in no way intended for the public, makes no difference. Once it becomes publicly known, you are a slut (or a pervert) and harshly punished. Perverts are no good, and sluts are worse. This cultural norm is the only reason this type of shaming has any effect. But really, we are all sluts and perverts. A good first step would be to go after the psychopaths who run campaigns like these. A good second step would be to abolish the cultural norms that allow sexuality and nudity to be used as a weapon. If you look at "alternative" sexual societies like swingers' clubs or BDSM communities, you will often hear the word "pervert" or "slut" used in a positive sense, the way homosexuals are reclaiming literally every derogatory term used about their sexual identity. Most people in these communities are very aware and careful regarding the reactions of outside society if it became known what they do in their bedrooms, but the capability to make them feel bad about themselves for acts of nudity or sex is often completely absent.
- scotty79 13y ago
  Perv: "I've seen you naked." Response in sane culture: "Nobody cares. Grow up and find something useful to be excited about."
  - ars 13y ago
    Presumably both of you will now go ahead and post naked pictures of yourself since you don't care if anyone sees them? Perhaps follow up with bank and medical records? Or do you feel that privacy only applies to things other than nudity? Oh and I'm sure you wouldn't mind hundreds of people contacting you and your employer and calling you all sorts of names.
Glyptodon 13y ago
I have one weird reservation - her daughter is/was 24, but doesn't seem to have been involved a whole lot? Or maybe it's just written that way on purpose? Maybe it's just me, but leaving someone to mope seems a little like you're treating them as more a child than an adult.
- krenoten 13y ago
  The author claimed to have been a private eye in the 80s, and presumably knew how to investigate with some degree of success. It's not clear how much experience, capacity or energy her victimized daughter had in this time of great distress.
- sliverstorm 13y ago
  eaving someone to mope seems a little like you're treating them as more a child than an adult ... yes?
- dllthomas 13y ago
  I'm not entirely unsympathetic to this point, but I think it's frequently harder to deal with emotionally fraught things like this for oneself than for another. So long as you're there to do the same for others, I don't think it's necessarily wrong to let someone help you with it.
- stephen 13y ago
  Do you have kids? Perhaps you don't understand the righteous anger that a parent would feel in this scenario. If this happened to my kid, I would also completely take over, and want them involved as little as possible. Yes, even if they were 24.
  - Glyptodon 13y ago
    Of course I'd want to on some level, but I'd also want to make sure that even if I helped I'd also be imparting the skills for them to accomplish things on their own. I think I view enabling a child's independence as a parent's most important job, particularly in light of the often random and occasionally capricious nature of death.
gngeal 13y ago
"My computer had been bombarded with viruses, and a technician had advised me to buy all new equipment because the malware was tough to remove." I assume the technician was coincidentally also a salesman. ;-) "Tough to remove"? What a load of crap.
- krenoten 13y ago
  Rootkits exist that survive OS reinstalls. I don't know how prevalent they are, but if you expect a target to try to reinstall their operating system to attempt to purge an infection it is possible to counter this.
  - deleted 13y ago
    [deleted]
  - XavierMendel 13y ago
    Then replace the hard drive? I don't know of any viruses that could hide itself in your case fans so I'm inclined to think that buying a whole new computer is an overreaction.
    - alexeisadeski3 13y ago
      >I don't know of any viruses that could hide itself in your case fans Wait for Snowden's next leak.
    - krenoten 13y ago
      There's a lot of persistent, executable storage on modern computers. I don't know how often attackers take advantage of these, but if you suspect a threat against you is capable of taking advantage of them, then you may want to be more thorough. I kind of think the technician was overreacting too, but I don't know what kinds of rootkits are publicly available for any attacker to copy and paste these days.
    - sillysaurus2 13y ago
      You know you can run a program which updates your BIOS? Therefore, a hacker can write a program to replace your BIOS with something that looks completely the same, except it also reinfects your computer each month. This isn't paranoia. It's inevitable. I'm surprised it's not more well-known.
Nursie 13y ago
At some point can't she say "so there's a picture of my left tit on the net, and?" Also I don't understand why people like Moore haven't been sued into the ground for profiting from copyright violation. (edit: I mean other than the whole upfront cost aspect, but given how frickin' insane copyright penalties are, you would think some or other lawyer would take it on a no-win no-fee basis.)
- DanBC 13y ago
  Sure, she can say that. Some professions don't welcome people who have nude photographs of themselves on the Internet - teachers, for example. It seems baffling to me that her partner would consider leaving her, but the article says it was a concern. Or sometimes people at vulnerable points in their lives are outed. Or not even outed, just plain blackmailed. It's very easy to say "just shrug it off", but the numbers of people completing suicide (I've found 3 names in a very quick web search) shows that it's not something that people can just get over. http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/23724703 http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/23724703 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-24428437 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-24428437 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-24163284 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-24163284
  - Nursie 13y ago
    Those links are about very different cases of children being blackmailed. What's at issue in the link is leaked pictures of grown women. Clearly the behaviour of the people involved in this is abhorrent (for multiple reasons) but there has to be a point where you stop caring. Moore is not the only asshole in the story by a long stretch. He might not even be the worst. I mean, if the boyfriend thought about leaving her for a second then he's not worth worrying about, he's an asshole. Whoever fired the kindergarten teacher likewise. The real story is not the 'revenge porn', it's the morons that are so upset by it that they fire someone, or that anyone would take kids away from their mother over it, or really any of the societal bullshit about nudity. edit: And seriously, some professions don't like taking people who have been naked on the internet? Those professions need to grow the f*ck up.
    - deleted 13y ago
jrockway 13y ago
The story kind of jumps around and I read it in parts, but I'm confused about the outcome. He basically went into hiding and suffered no consequences? What worries me more deeply is how society provides people like Moore with the ammunition they need to terrorize women. One victim complained that she would lose her children over the nude pictures. Even if they were actually of her, why does someone have to fear the government taking away their kids simply because they chose to appear naked in front of a camera? That doesn't make someone a bad parent. It doesn't really make them anything. Why do we make people fear the govenrment AND their exes AND crazy people on the Internet? As society, we're doing a piss-poor job providing protection to people that need it.
- marquis 13y ago
  He is under current investigation by the FBI, from what I understood. I also find it extremely disturbing that someone would lose their job over this. I don't know many other democratic countries how would have this immediate reaction, and would certainly at least investigate first.
- alexeisadeski3 13y ago
  Family court's a joke. It terrorizes everyone involved.
- dinkumthinkum 13y ago
  Well, I agree the narrative s a bit hard to follow. I doubt anyone will lose ther kids because of that ... That is a very hard thing to do in the US. You essentially need categorical evidence if being a crackhead and even then ...
  - mcv 13y ago
    I've read some totally crazy stories about people losing their kids in the US. Photos of breastfeeding or bathing (child porn!), playing outside (irresponsible!), and who knows what else. And that was without existing divorce and custody issues.
belorn 13y ago
> Fear entered my life. I received verbal attacks on Twitter, computer viruses and death threats. ... This prompted me to make Moore's home address public on Twitter. And people wonder why death threats on the internet is not taken serious by the police. If the victims of death threat do not care, then the police won't. The result is that death threats then become normal on online forums, and real death threats gets ignored.
michaelochurch 13y ago
What's really sick is the personality cult around this creep, even after the end of IAU. I had originally assumed that the "I love Hunter" posts that appear on the Internet on the topic were him-- he's a troll; trolls do that-- but apparently he has real-life fans. It's basically the Shawn Parker story. No real accomplishments, but active participation in the party scene leads to high status. If this current incarnation of the VC-funded bubble hasn't crashed, in 3 years he'll be part of the "tech" in-crowd and people here will be discussing his new venture capital fund. I, for one, will never take investment from any VC firm that employs Hunter Moore as a Managing Partner.
- EdwardDiego 13y ago
  > What's really sick is the personality cult around this creep Yeah, I just had a look at his Twitter, there's a lot of girls sending him naked pictures and telling him how much they love him, and a bunch of sycophants avidly defending him (in a highly misogynistic manner, natürlich).
  - defen 13y ago
    > there's a lot of girls sending him naked pictures and telling him how much they love him Some women just have really broken status filters. They're attracted to guys with high status, and ignore the fact that he achieved that through evil means. It's the same thing that causes women to fall in love with convicted murderers serving life sentences. From his vice interview: A lot of people send the naked pictures to get jobs in the adult industry, too. But the one thing they have in common is they’re fucking retarded. That’s the similarity. They’re just stupid people. All I really do is take advantage of them; it’s just them being fucking retarded. http://www.vice.com/read/hunter-moores-new-site-will-make-getting-a-blowjob-as-easy-as-ordering-pizza http://www.vice.com/read/hunter-moores-new-site-will-make-ge...
- superuser2 13y ago
  Um. Napster?
- mcv 13y ago
  > If this current incarnation of the VC-funded bubble hasn't crashed, in 3 years he'll be part of the "tech" in-crowd and people here will be discussing his new venture capital fund. > I, for one, will never take investment from any VC firm that employs Hunter Moore as a Managing Partner. Surely, there's no chance of that actually happening? He's going to end up bankrupt behind bars, right?
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n1ghtmare_ 13y ago
Well it looks like he got owned, I couldn't help but smile at the end :)
yummyfajitas 13y ago
The case against Hunter Moore makes me uncomfortable. Consider a very similar hypothetical site, is-anyone-up-for-busting-corruption.com. Much like isanyoneup.com, this site also posts media of people engaging in actions they do not wish to be seen engaged in. When media is posted, it is accompanied by contact information for the employers of the people involved, and the desire is expressed for those people to be fired and their lives ruined. I can't say I like the precedent the attacks on Hunter Moore are setting, even if he is a great big jerk.
- caf 13y ago
  Any country that claims to operate based on the rule of law would recognise that a site like the one you describe would be seeking to deny natural justice to those depicted.
bowlofpetunias 13y ago
Just a thought: if every American here railing against the ridiculously prudish American culture could pretty please keep in mind that if they offer a service that for instance bans people from posting pictures or distributing apps because "boobies", you are part of the problem. This is often so easily dismissed on HN as "my product, my rules", when it is actually a political statement of support for, or at least surrender to, the notion that nudity is something wrong and shameful, especially for women. You wanna solve the problem, start by cleaning up your own act, and take the anti-"porn" provisions out of your TOS, and stop crucifying your users for posting ordinary holiday snapshots because, "boobies".
- marvin 13y ago
  This should be blatantly obvious, but thank you for pointing it out. I think that many people are blind to social expectations, taboos and their social context. I think Paul Graham's essay about mental fashions is a great summary of this type of mental stretching, but most people fall far from the philosophic ideal of being able to see society's unwritten rules from a distance. http://paulgraham.com/say.html http://paulgraham.com/say.html
pycassa 13y ago
sorry for being off topic, but twitters pic flagging algorithms are crap in my experience. I searched for huntermoore in twitter and I came across a nsfw picture of a man trying to cut his testicles. https://twitter.com/search?q=huntermoore&src=typd https://twitter.com/search?q=huntermoore&src=typd twitter's safe picture algorithm is a fail in my experience, it fails to tag these gross gore and nsfw pictures but it tags all the pictures uploaded by fernando alonso formula 1 racer as nsfw by default, I never understood that. https://twitter.com/alo_oficial https://twitter.com/alo_oficial click on any twitpicture and you will get a warning. make sure you have your profile set to not view tagged pictures by default, "tweet media settings" I always found this annoying being a fernando alonso fan.

240 points by co_pl_te 13y ago

>People claimed to be afraid of him. He had no fear oflawsuits; he knew a victim would be unlikely to sue because a civil suit would cost $60,000 (according to attorney Marc Randazza) Why do we allow that kind if situation to persist? What can be done about it?

ars 13y ago
It's tough to do anything because what if the suit was false? You can't just assume the suer is correct and deserves protection. There is a right for someone to face their accuser, and you can't make them pay just because they were accused. For the money issue there are charities that do help. Regarding the name part perhaps a judge can seal or redact the record?
- SilasX 13y ago
  I was asking about the $60k issue. Why is it so expensve even in the most clear-cut case? And it looks like charity really can't fill the void in this case.
lem72 13y ago
I have no idea if EFF would be down to help in this, but i wouldn't put it past them for helping in situations like this. https://www.eff.org/work https://www.eff.org/work Definitely a worthy cause to donate to.
rohu1990 13y ago
I was thinking the same, does this mean only rich has the right to get justice ? And others must keep calm and suffer ?

chris_wot 13y ago

I am surprised that someone didn't injure the man, or worse.

pstuart 13y ago
Revenge is a dish best served cold.
josephagoss 13y ago
Wikipedia says one of the victims stabbed him, but there are no citations.
- michaelochurch 13y ago
  Could be, or he could have made it up. Source: your resident trolling expert. (There are two ways to parse that.)
  - brokenparser 13y ago
    your raisin rolling expert? you reside nt roll in gex per t? This doesn't make sense, in what other language besides English would this be parsable?
    - Kliment 13y ago
      That the poster is expert at trolling, that is, very accomplished as a troll OR that the poster is an expert in understanding trolls and can thus speak with authority about them.
- tommorris 13y ago
  I've added some: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Hunter_Moore&diff=583069688&oldid=583059482 https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Hunter_Moore&diff...
fallingOff 13y ago
In all seriousness, I look forward to a world with assassination markets every time I read a story like this.

deleted 13y ago

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gnu8 13y ago

I emailed the site owner, Hunter Moore, and asked him to take down the photo in accordance with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. He refused. Would it be to much trouble for these people to learn how to use the DMCA properly? Obviously he is not going to turn his own web site off.

techsupporter 13y ago
I'm pretty familiar with the DMCA and I'm not 100% sure that I could keep it straight with the prospect of my personal and professional reputation crashing down around me because of some jackass illegally cracking into an account I owned and blasting out personal data. Sadly, we're all having to become lawyers now.
TillE 13y ago
Since we're obviously talking about a very determined scumbag, it'd be too easy to just host outside the US. Copyright law often does apply in this kind of situation, but it's still not a great solution. Need more attention to privacy rights.
- chris_wot 13y ago
  Then he won't be covered under the safe harbour provisions of the DMCA.

deleted 13y ago

[deleted]

spindritf 13y ago

How was Gary Jones hacking those e-mail accounts? How was Black Lotus blocking assets (pages, images) on Moore's website? And why was a security company he hired(?) working against him?

scotty79 13y ago
Answer to the last question is: probably because he was crminal and an asshole and tech people tend to be disagreeable with that. Paying customer or not. We are not lawyers.
krenoten 13y ago
I'd assume he's just a botmaster that happens to automate creepy scanning of compromised email accounts for such images, but the fact that 2 of the victims knew each other suggests that he could be doing targeted phishing on new targets that he identifies while browsing accounts. I'm not familiar with Black Lotus, but looking at their page for http://www.blacklotus.net/protect/protection-for-gear http://www.blacklotus.net/protect/protection-for-gear suggests that they basically act as a proxy for a customer's service, preventing malicious traffic from burdening the server. Because whatever goes in or out must pass through them first, they can decide not to allow certain things out if they are not comfortable with it.
meowface 13y ago
"Gary Jones" is/was likely a script kiddie who spread malware and carefully looked for nude pictures on the hard drives and accounts he gained access to. Basically he went after low-hanging fruit. If he did target anyone, it was probably phishing ("click here!") through Facebook messages or emails.
caf 13y ago
Does anyone not think that Gary Jones is just a Hunter Moore alias?

marvin 13y ago

A somewhat related note is that America's culture of sex-negativity, shame and general hysteria around nudity is a required prerequisite for this type of bullying and abuse. Look at the following paragraph: > Jill became hysterical, repeating, "Oh, my God. No. Oh, my God. No." This is, obviously, the reaction of someone who fears repercussions from others. And this is for completely harmless acts (taking nude photos), which almost everyone does these days. And with good reason. Society in the US clamps down hard on people (women to a greater degree, but also men) who have the audacity to express their sexuality. That this expression was in no way intended for the public, makes no difference. Once it becomes publicly known, you are a slut (or a pervert) and harshly punished. Perverts are no good, and sluts are worse. This cultural norm is the only reason this type of shaming has any effect. But really, we are all sluts and perverts. A good first step would be to go after the psychopaths who run campaigns like these. A good second step would be to abolish the cultural norms that allow sexuality and nudity to be used as a weapon. If you look at "alternative" sexual societies like swingers' clubs or BDSM communities, you will often hear the word "pervert" or "slut" used in a positive sense, the way homosexuals are reclaiming literally every derogatory term used about their sexual identity. Most people in these communities are very aware and careful regarding the reactions of outside society if it became known what they do in their bedrooms, but the capability to make them feel bad about themselves for acts of nudity or sex is often completely absent.

scotty79 13y ago
Perv: "I've seen you naked." Response in sane culture: "Nobody cares. Grow up and find something useful to be excited about."
- ars 13y ago
  Presumably both of you will now go ahead and post naked pictures of yourself since you don't care if anyone sees them? Perhaps follow up with bank and medical records? Or do you feel that privacy only applies to things other than nudity? Oh and I'm sure you wouldn't mind hundreds of people contacting you and your employer and calling you all sorts of names.

Glyptodon 13y ago

I have one weird reservation - her daughter is/was 24, but doesn't seem to have been involved a whole lot? Or maybe it's just written that way on purpose? Maybe it's just me, but leaving someone to mope seems a little like you're treating them as more a child than an adult.

krenoten 13y ago
The author claimed to have been a private eye in the 80s, and presumably knew how to investigate with some degree of success. It's not clear how much experience, capacity or energy her victimized daughter had in this time of great distress.
sliverstorm 13y ago
eaving someone to mope seems a little like you're treating them as more a child than an adult ... yes?
dllthomas 13y ago
I'm not entirely unsympathetic to this point, but I think it's frequently harder to deal with emotionally fraught things like this for oneself than for another. So long as you're there to do the same for others, I don't think it's necessarily wrong to let someone help you with it.
stephen 13y ago
Do you have kids? Perhaps you don't understand the righteous anger that a parent would feel in this scenario. If this happened to my kid, I would also completely take over, and want them involved as little as possible. Yes, even if they were 24.
- Glyptodon 13y ago
  Of course I'd want to on some level, but I'd also want to make sure that even if I helped I'd also be imparting the skills for them to accomplish things on their own. I think I view enabling a child's independence as a parent's most important job, particularly in light of the often random and occasionally capricious nature of death.

gngeal 13y ago

"My computer had been bombarded with viruses, and a technician had advised me to buy all new equipment because the malware was tough to remove." I assume the technician was coincidentally also a salesman. ;-) "Tough to remove"? What a load of crap.

krenoten 13y ago
Rootkits exist that survive OS reinstalls. I don't know how prevalent they are, but if you expect a target to try to reinstall their operating system to attempt to purge an infection it is possible to counter this.
- deleted 13y ago
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- XavierMendel 13y ago
  Then replace the hard drive? I don't know of any viruses that could hide itself in your case fans so I'm inclined to think that buying a whole new computer is an overreaction.
  - alexeisadeski3 13y ago
    >I don't know of any viruses that could hide itself in your case fans Wait for Snowden's next leak.
  - krenoten 13y ago
    There's a lot of persistent, executable storage on modern computers. I don't know how often attackers take advantage of these, but if you suspect a threat against you is capable of taking advantage of them, then you may want to be more thorough. I kind of think the technician was overreacting too, but I don't know what kinds of rootkits are publicly available for any attacker to copy and paste these days.
  - sillysaurus2 13y ago
    You know you can run a program which updates your BIOS? Therefore, a hacker can write a program to replace your BIOS with something that looks completely the same, except it also reinfects your computer each month. This isn't paranoia. It's inevitable. I'm surprised it's not more well-known.

Nursie 13y ago

At some point can't she say "so there's a picture of my left tit on the net, and?" Also I don't understand why people like Moore haven't been sued into the ground for profiting from copyright violation. (edit: I mean other than the whole upfront cost aspect, but given how frickin' insane copyright penalties are, you would think some or other lawyer would take it on a no-win no-fee basis.)

DanBC 13y ago
Sure, she can say that. Some professions don't welcome people who have nude photographs of themselves on the Internet - teachers, for example. It seems baffling to me that her partner would consider leaving her, but the article says it was a concern. Or sometimes people at vulnerable points in their lives are outed. Or not even outed, just plain blackmailed. It's very easy to say "just shrug it off", but the numbers of people completing suicide (I've found 3 names in a very quick web search) shows that it's not something that people can just get over. http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/23724703 http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/23724703 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-24428437 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-24428437 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-24163284 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-24163284
- Nursie 13y ago
  Those links are about very different cases of children being blackmailed. What's at issue in the link is leaked pictures of grown women. Clearly the behaviour of the people involved in this is abhorrent (for multiple reasons) but there has to be a point where you stop caring. Moore is not the only asshole in the story by a long stretch. He might not even be the worst. I mean, if the boyfriend thought about leaving her for a second then he's not worth worrying about, he's an asshole. Whoever fired the kindergarten teacher likewise. The real story is not the 'revenge porn', it's the morons that are so upset by it that they fire someone, or that anyone would take kids away from their mother over it, or really any of the societal bullshit about nudity. edit: And seriously, some professions don't like taking people who have been naked on the internet? Those professions need to grow the f*ck up.
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jrockway 13y ago

The story kind of jumps around and I read it in parts, but I'm confused about the outcome. He basically went into hiding and suffered no consequences? What worries me more deeply is how society provides people like Moore with the ammunition they need to terrorize women. One victim complained that she would lose her children over the nude pictures. Even if they were actually of her, why does someone have to fear the government taking away their kids simply because they chose to appear naked in front of a camera? That doesn't make someone a bad parent. It doesn't really make them anything. Why do we make people fear the govenrment AND their exes AND crazy people on the Internet? As society, we're doing a piss-poor job providing protection to people that need it.

marquis 13y ago
He is under current investigation by the FBI, from what I understood. I also find it extremely disturbing that someone would lose their job over this. I don't know many other democratic countries how would have this immediate reaction, and would certainly at least investigate first.
alexeisadeski3 13y ago
Family court's a joke. It terrorizes everyone involved.
dinkumthinkum 13y ago
Well, I agree the narrative s a bit hard to follow. I doubt anyone will lose ther kids because of that ... That is a very hard thing to do in the US. You essentially need categorical evidence if being a crackhead and even then ...
- mcv 13y ago
  I've read some totally crazy stories about people losing their kids in the US. Photos of breastfeeding or bathing (child porn!), playing outside (irresponsible!), and who knows what else. And that was without existing divorce and custody issues.

belorn 13y ago

> Fear entered my life. I received verbal attacks on Twitter, computer viruses and death threats. ... This prompted me to make Moore's home address public on Twitter. And people wonder why death threats on the internet is not taken serious by the police. If the victims of death threat do not care, then the police won't. The result is that death threats then become normal on online forums, and real death threats gets ignored.

michaelochurch 13y ago

What's really sick is the personality cult around this creep, even after the end of IAU. I had originally assumed that the "I love Hunter" posts that appear on the Internet on the topic were him-- he's a troll; trolls do that-- but apparently he has real-life fans. It's basically the Shawn Parker story. No real accomplishments, but active participation in the party scene leads to high status. If this current incarnation of the VC-funded bubble hasn't crashed, in 3 years he'll be part of the "tech" in-crowd and people here will be discussing his new venture capital fund. I, for one, will never take investment from any VC firm that employs Hunter Moore as a Managing Partner.

EdwardDiego 13y ago
> What's really sick is the personality cult around this creep Yeah, I just had a look at his Twitter, there's a lot of girls sending him naked pictures and telling him how much they love him, and a bunch of sycophants avidly defending him (in a highly misogynistic manner, natürlich).
- defen 13y ago
  > there's a lot of girls sending him naked pictures and telling him how much they love him Some women just have really broken status filters. They're attracted to guys with high status, and ignore the fact that he achieved that through evil means. It's the same thing that causes women to fall in love with convicted murderers serving life sentences. From his vice interview: A lot of people send the naked pictures to get jobs in the adult industry, too. But the one thing they have in common is they’re fucking retarded. That’s the similarity. They’re just stupid people. All I really do is take advantage of them; it’s just them being fucking retarded. http://www.vice.com/read/hunter-moores-new-site-will-make-getting-a-blowjob-as-easy-as-ordering-pizza http://www.vice.com/read/hunter-moores-new-site-will-make-ge...
superuser2 13y ago
Um. Napster?
mcv 13y ago
> If this current incarnation of the VC-funded bubble hasn't crashed, in 3 years he'll be part of the "tech" in-crowd and people here will be discussing his new venture capital fund. > I, for one, will never take investment from any VC firm that employs Hunter Moore as a Managing Partner. Surely, there's no chance of that actually happening? He's going to end up bankrupt behind bars, right?

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n1ghtmare_ 13y ago

Well it looks like he got owned, I couldn't help but smile at the end :)

yummyfajitas 13y ago

The case against Hunter Moore makes me uncomfortable. Consider a very similar hypothetical site, is-anyone-up-for-busting-corruption.com. Much like isanyoneup.com, this site also posts media of people engaging in actions they do not wish to be seen engaged in. When media is posted, it is accompanied by contact information for the employers of the people involved, and the desire is expressed for those people to be fired and their lives ruined. I can't say I like the precedent the attacks on Hunter Moore are setting, even if he is a great big jerk.

caf 13y ago
Any country that claims to operate based on the rule of law would recognise that a site like the one you describe would be seeking to deny natural justice to those depicted.

bowlofpetunias 13y ago

Just a thought: if every American here railing against the ridiculously prudish American culture could pretty please keep in mind that if they offer a service that for instance bans people from posting pictures or distributing apps because "boobies", you are part of the problem. This is often so easily dismissed on HN as "my product, my rules", when it is actually a political statement of support for, or at least surrender to, the notion that nudity is something wrong and shameful, especially for women. You wanna solve the problem, start by cleaning up your own act, and take the anti-"porn" provisions out of your TOS, and stop crucifying your users for posting ordinary holiday snapshots because, "boobies".

marvin 13y ago
This should be blatantly obvious, but thank you for pointing it out. I think that many people are blind to social expectations, taboos and their social context. I think Paul Graham's essay about mental fashions is a great summary of this type of mental stretching, but most people fall far from the philosophic ideal of being able to see society's unwritten rules from a distance. http://paulgraham.com/say.html http://paulgraham.com/say.html

pycassa 13y ago

sorry for being off topic, but twitters pic flagging algorithms are crap in my experience. I searched for huntermoore in twitter and I came across a nsfw picture of a man trying to cut his testicles. https://twitter.com/search?q=huntermoore&src=typd https://twitter.com/search?q=huntermoore&src=typd twitter's safe picture algorithm is a fail in my experience, it fails to tag these gross gore and nsfw pictures but it tags all the pictures uploaded by fernando alonso formula 1 racer as nsfw by default, I never understood that. https://twitter.com/alo_oficial https://twitter.com/alo_oficial click on any twitpicture and you will get a warning. make sure you have your profile set to not view tagged pictures by default, "tweet media settings" I always found this annoying being a fernando alonso fan.