Mikah SargentYou likely remember the celebrity nude photo thefts, in which hackers infiltrated the iCloud accounts of hundreds of celebrities and posted their private, nude photography on the Internet.
Now, a law firm representing several of the celebrities is planning a $100 million lawsuit, but it's not against Apple — it's against Google.
In the firm's letter to Google, posted to Scribd by the New York Post, it requested removal of the nude photographs based on the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, or DMCA. The DMCA requires hosts "act expeditiously" in removing photos that violate the act.
According to the Wall Street Journal, the firm alleges Google failed to "act expeditiously" in removing nude photos from its sites and services, including YouTube and Blogger. It reportedly sent takedown requests shortly after the photos began cropping up, but says many of the photos are still available online.
The firm even compares Google's actions to recent controversies in the NFL. "Like the NFL, which turned a blind eye while its players assaulted and victimized women and children, Google has turned a blind eye while its sites repeatedly exploit and victimize these women."
Google has since responded to the allegations, insisting it took action following the DMCA request.
The Guardian has Google's response: "We've removed tens of thousands of pictures – within hours of the requests being made – and we have closed hundreds of accounts."
Interestingly, according to a report by TorrentFreak in mid-September, Google was presented with a DMCA request from Kate Upton's boyfriend. While the Internet company did remove 51 percent of the links to nude photos from its search engine, it left 45 percent of them untouched.
Along with demanding the company to immediately remove all offending images, sites and accounts, the firm has asked Google to retain account information — email addresses, IP addresses, log-ins, etc. — of those who posted the stolen photos.
This video includes images from Getty Images.
