Photo-Sharing Site Runs Afoul of Facebook encourages posting photos of friends charging for removal

businessweek ^ | February 11, 2009 | Douglas MacMillan

[JoeProBono]

Posting photos of last night's indiscretions on the Internet always carries risk. Sure, you can upload pictures to a password-protected album, or a social network that lets you share only with the folks you trust. But compromising photos have a way of getting out. Now the leaking just got easier. A new free Web site called YoBusted prominently features photos of people in various stages of undress, in the midst of revelry, or in other potentially embarrassing situations. The snapshots are not necessarily posted by the subject, either; YoBusted encourages users to send in photos of other people with the invitation: "Anonymously upload hilarious photos and videos of people you know." If a subject who isn't a member wants a photo removed, YoBusted requires that the person become a "trial" member for $19.99 for a month or a "premium" member for $49.99 a year.

[Virginia Ridgerunner]

Sounds like criminal extortion to me...

[mnehring]

I smell lawsuits.

[library user]

Who says you can’t profit bigtime from blackmail?

[Uncle Miltie]

yikes!

[Daffynition]

[ravingnutter]

Me too...I went and read the article, they were reported to the FBI, but an expert says extortion would be difficult to prove.

[library user]

[messierhunter]

Mass marketed extortion, at that. I can’t see how this could even be remotely legal.

[mnehring]

I just had a brainstorm. If this company wanted to make a mint, they should pay commissions for photo submitters whenever someone pays to have a photo removed.

[messierhunter]

They already thought of that, and implemented it.

They also can "earn referral commissions" of $10 or $20 when someone they tag becomes a member, if only to secure the removal of a photo

[starlifter]

Me too.

[JoeProBono]

[mnehring]

I guess I should have checked the site first. :->

[Skooz]

Sounds like criminal extortion to me...

Yep.

[TheWasteLand]

I avoid social networking sites like the plague. This is yet another reason to do so.

The problem of course, is that some buffoon I know could take a picture of me doing something indiscreet (not that I would of course) and post it to their site, which could then get me in trouble. It's a thorny problem.

[Troll_House_Cookies]

[MeanWestTexan]

According to my in-house counsel, the tort is called “invasion of privacy,” or “appropriation of a likeness.”

[mnehring]

your avoiding those sites won’t stop the buffoon friend from doing that. It just means you would be the last person to know there is a photo of you peeing floating on the net.

[TheWasteLand]

That’s true. As I say, it’s a thorny problem.