http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2014/09/02/leaked-nude-celebrity-photos-when-a-cybercrime-becomes-a-sex-crime/ [quote]It’s not the tech jargon of online privacy breaches. And it’s not the hand-wringing associated with Wikileaks. The public commentary provoked by the cyber-theft and public posting of those intimate female celebrity photos Sunday is something else entirely. It’s the language you hear when people are discussing -blam!-. The people that stole these photos aren’t “hackers,” Lena Dunham tweeted. They are “sex offenders.” “Remember, she wrote, “when you look at these pictures you are violating these women again and again. It’s not okay.” In the immediate aftermath, there was a rush among some to blame victims (Jennifer Lawrence, Mary Elizabeth Winstead and apparently scores of others) for taking nude photos of themselves in the first place — nevermind that they were intended to be private. For example: “Celebrities, make it harder for people to get nude pics of you from your computer by not putting nude pics of yourself on your computer,” comedian Ricky Gervais reportedly Tweeted (and then deleted). Writing for CNN, Peggy Drexler reacted. “Certainly, the surest way to avoid ever having your most private photos shared publicly is to not take them in the first place. … While we’re at it: Don’t leave the house. After all, you could get mugged, or -blam!-. … It’s ridiculous logic.” “In the aftermath of this theft and the subsequent online leak,” wrote Samantha Allen in The Daily Beast, “Jennifer Lawrence is receiving conflicting messages on social media about how she should respond to the widespread distribution of the photos. Predictably, several people are blaming the leak on Lawrence herself for taking the photos in the first place—instead of blaming the hacker who stole the photos and the 4Chan user who leaked them to the world….Blaming the female victim of a sex crime instead of the perpetrator is unfortunately par for the course and nude photo thefts are no exception.” [/quote] Did those celebrities have it coming? How should this be handled? What are your thoughts?