11 March 2013 Last updated at 07:52 ET

'Revenge porn' site owner Hunter Moore sued for defamation

By Dave Lee Technology reporter, BBC News
Hunter Moore Hunter Moore sold his website IsAnyoneUp.com for a "nominal" fee in
April last year
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The founder of a so-called "revenge porn" website has been ordered to pay $250,0
00 (170,000) in damages for defamation.
Hunter Moore was found to have made false claims about the chief executive of an
anti-bullying website.
Mr Moore used Twitter to falsely claim James McGibney was a paedophile who posse
ssed child pornography.
Mr Moore's website used to post naked images of people without their permission.
He closed it in 2012.
At the time, the site's closure seemed a sudden and dramatic change of heart - M
r Moore sold the domain, IsAnyoneUp.com, to Mr McGibney's website Bullyville.com
.
"Back in April of this year, I convinced Hunter to shut down his now infamous "I
sAnyoneUp.com" revenge porn website for a nominal fee," wrote Mr McGibney in a b
log post about the recent lawsuit.
"Hunter was so convincing that he was going to turn over a new leaf and be an ad
vocate against bullying, especially under-age bullying.
"Within 72 hours of that transaction being complete, Hunter was on Twitter cyber
bullying kids worse than ever before.
"Telling kids that they should 'kill themselves' using vulgar, racist language a
nd advocating more violence and revenge."
Las Vegas court documents filed on Friday, and reported on by Ars Technica, show
ed Mr Moore did not contest the charges.
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Start Quote
We're doing this mostly for the completely powerless, underage women who wer
e verbally harassed after Hunter posted their completely naked, unedited photos
on his site.
James McGibney Bullyville.com
Mr Moore used his Twitter account, which has almost 150,000 followers, to make s
everal derogatory comments about Mr McGibney.
Mr Moore encouraged others to post the claims in return for free clothing - Mr M
cGibney said he would be taking action against those that did so.
"'Internet tough guys' are also legally accountable for their actions," Mr McGib
ney wrote.
"Hunter and some of his followers now realise this, along with their parents sin
ce some of his followers appear to be under the age of 18."
The settlement amount was said to be a "conservative estimate" of reputational d
amage caused by Mr Moore's comments.
The money would donated to women's shelters across the US, Mr McGibney added.
Direct action
Other sites, heavily inspired by Mr Moore's, carry out a similar purpose of post
ing naked images, often together with the victim's social-media profiles.
Mr Moore, and others like him, have typically been able to avoid direct action t
hanks to complex rules regarding uploading such images.
Typically, in cases where images are removed, it is because of breaches of copyr
ight rather than because of the content of the photographs.
In an interview with the BBC last year, Mr Moore said of his site: "People obvio
usly want it, and I'm going to give the people what they want.
"I'm just a businessman.
Hunter Moore with a teddy bear Mr Moore has ignored most threats of legal action
against his site
"I just monetise people's mistakes that they made and it's kind of a shady busin
ess. But if it wasn't me, somebody else was going to do it. All I did was really
perfected the way to monetise people's naked pictures."
He has made repeated claims that he would relaunch his website - but this has no
t materialised, in part due to action by hacktivist collective Anonymous, who ta
rgeted the planned site towards the end of last year.
In addition to the defamation claim, Mr McGibney has launched a class action law
suit against the site, and has invited users to come forward to share their comp
laints.
"We're doing this mostly for the completely powerless, under-age women who were
verbally harassed after Hunter posted their completely naked, unedited photos on
his site.
"We'll soon be launching a brand new site for IsAnyoneUp.com that not only shows
the history and eventual dismantling of this disturbing website, but also bring
s valuable information to people who have been wronged by similar behaviour."
Mr Moore has yet to comment on the court order.
Lawyer Marc Randazza, who represented Mr McGibney in the case, has said he will
help Las Vegas-based revenge porn victims for no charge.
In a blog post, he wrote: "If anyone out there has been scammed by these crooks,
contact me."
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