Google Threatened With Lawsuit Over Hacked Nude Celebrity Photographs

Chuck Bednar for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online
An attorney representing some of the female celebrities whose private photos were stolen and posted online by hackers a little over one month ago is threatening to sue Google for failing to do enough to remove the images from its website, various media outlets reported on Thursday.
According to Reuters reporter Brendan Pierson, entertainment industry lawyer Martin Singer wrote in a letter Wednesday that Google was “making millions and profiting from the victimization of women.” Singer, who did not reveal which celebrities he is representing, said that the tech giant could be liable for more than $100 million in damages.
The attorney, who said that he sent the Mountain View, California-based company multiple notices of violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act in an attempt to get the pictures removed from the website, also wrote that Google knew the photos were “hacked stolen property, private and confidential photos and videos unlawfully obtained and posted by pervert predators who are violating the victims’ privacy rights and basic human decency.”
The incident, which occurred in early September, saw hackers allegedly gain access to cloud storage accounts and steal private (and, in some cases, compromising) photos reportedly belonging to several celebrities, including Jennifer Lawrence, Kate Upton, Victoria Justice, Mary Elizabeth Winstead and Ariana Grande. Shortly thereafter, Apple launched an investigation into iCloud security issues believed to have played a role in the incident.
According to Eriq Gardner of the Hollywood Reporter, Singer said that “”Google’s ‘Don’t be evil’ motto is a sham,” and demanded that the search engine immediately remove all offending images. He also asked the website to preserve all records related to the pictures “pending subpoenas to be issued in the upcoming/pending litigation.”
Following the scandal, Google began conducting an investigation on matters such as fair use and who owns the copyright for a selfie before removing website URLs from its search results, Gardner explained. In the letter, Singer said the company had a responsibility to the celebrity victims that goes beyond its typical business operations, and also accused it of accommodating YouTube and Blogspot users who posted the offending images.
“If your wives, daughters or relatives were the victims of such blatant violations of basic human rights, surely you would take appropriate action,” the letter said. “But because the victims are celebrities with valuable publicity rights, you do nothing – nothing but collect millions of dollars in advertising revenue from your co-conspirator advertising partners as you seek to capitalize on this scandal rather than quash it… Google has turned a blind eye while its sites repeatedly exploit and victimize these women.”
A Google spokesperson told CNET’s Don Reisinger that the company believed it has acted responsibly, removing tens of thousands of images within hours of receiving the requests. However, Reisinger said that as of Thursday afternoon, CNET was still able to locate some of the nude images using Google’s Image search, though he noted they were “few and far between.”
Singer, who has previously represented actors John Travolta and Charlie Sheen and X-Men director Bryan Singer in high-profile cases, addressed his letter to Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, as well as executive chairman Eric Schmidt and other high-ranking executives with the company, said Philip Sherwell of The Telegraph. The attorney also went on to praise Twitter for its quick action in removing the offending images and suspending the accounts of users that posted them.
“The letter to Google appears at this point to simply be a warning shot, but the attorney left open the possibility of the celebrities suing Google,” Reisinger said. Singer added that “the seriousness of this matter cannot be overstated. If Google continues to thumb its nose at my clients’ rights – and continues to both allow and facilitate the further victimization of these women – and disregards the demands of this letter, it does so as its own peril.”
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