Lawyer Wants To Sue Google Over Celeb Photo Hack

With the recent celebrity photo hacking scandal, iCloud was quickly pointed to as a reason for us seeing far too much of those affected. Apple was quick to respond by pointing out the breach occurred by brute force, and not as a result of their lax security. Now, a lawyer representing some of the celebrities affected, is suing Google.

Marty Singer is representing over a dozen of the celebrities who have had their photos leaked via the hack. In a letter, Singer is threatening a $100 million lawsuit, claiming "Google's despicable, reprehensible conduct in not only failing to act expeditiously and responsibly to remove the Images, but in knowingly accommodating, facilitating and perpetuating the unlawful conduct."

Singer's complaint gravitates around the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which has a safe harbor provision. That's why takedown requests are honored. You probably see it most often when a YouTube video goes dark for using material that is under copyright, or they don't have express permission to use.

Though the pics were never meant to be distributed, Google has essentially been tasked with quickly deciding who owns a "selfie", here. That's a tough job, and Singer's argument is that they didn't act fast enough. Purposefully. To generate revenue. The pics can apparently still be found via a Google search, a full month after Singer says takedown requests were submitted.

Singer is also asking that Google take down the Blogspot accounts of anyone who posted the pics, but save their information for future litigation.

Google has yet to issue a response to the letter or issue at hand.

Source: Scribd

Via: Hollywood Reporter