By Diane Bartz
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The owner of a "revenge porn site," IsAnybodyDown.com, has agreed to not publish any nude pictures without the consent of the subject and to destroy his collection, the Federal Trade Commission said on Thursday.
Craig Brittain, who opened his website in 2011 and closed it in 2013 after a blast of publicity, had solicited pictures of women he met on sites such as Craigslist, the FTC said in its complaint. Men also gave him photos of naked women, presumably as a way to take revenge for being spurned.
Brittain offered bounties for nude pictures of certain women requested by users of his website, and then charged women to have their pictures removed. He made about $12,000 while the site was up and running, according to the FTC complaint.
"This behavior is not only illegal but reprehensible," said Jessica Rich, director of the FTC's Bureau of Consumer Protection. "I am pleased that as a result of this settlement, the illegally collected images and information will be deleted."
Adam Steinbaugh, a law graduate and blogger who has made attacking revenge porn an avocation, said it is hard to guarantee that a picture, once posted, can be totally removed from the Internet.
"I imagine that a lot of the people who were pictured on it (Brittain's site), their images are probably carried over to other websites," he said, noting that at least two or three other revenge sites are still operating.
"I don't know that but I wouldn't be surprised."