CNN interviews Daliah Saper about Revenge Porn

The term “Revenge Porn” made headlines recently when hacked, nude photos of celebrities like Oscar-winner Jennifer Lawrence and supermodel Kate Upton were widely disseminated online.  The vast majority of revenge porn cases, however, involve victims of a jealous or vengeful ex—the once-married individual, the college coed, or the high school teen.

CNN is exploring the many issues surrounding “revenge porn” in a five-part web series that is also the subject of a special television report.  As part of its investigative report, CNN interviewed Daliah Saper as well as one of Saper Law’s clients.  In her interview, Daliah explains some of the technical and legal hurdles that victims of revenge porn victims face in prosecuting defendants.  For example, many offenders upload these images and videos anonymously, using proxy servers to mask their identities and IP addresses.   Once online, such content can go viral, circulating in and out of subreddit chains, BitTorent files, and other impossible-to-control downstream distribution networks.

Under current federal law, website operators that merely host unauthorized images and videos are under no legal obligation to remove them.  Even when the individual offenders’ identities can be discovered, moreover, federal and state law often falls short of offering meaningful relief.  Indeed, most states have only taken reactive steps, passing imperfect laws to address this issue.  Worse, the intricacies of these laws still need to be ironed out and some may eventually be nullified on constitutional grounds.  Further, judges are ordinarily unfamiliar with the phenomenon, forcing victims to rely on traditional causes of action.  In short, revenge porn is an escalating issue without a clear-cut solution.

To learn move visit CNNMoney.com/RevengePorn. You can also contact Saper Law for a copy of the presentation Chad Nold gave at the Illinois Institute of Technology ForenSecure Conference.

If you are the victim of a revenge porn, contact us for a confidential consultation: 312.527.4100.