Celebrities threaten to sue Google for $100 million over stolen nude photos

An attorney representing more than a dozen celebrities who had nude photos stolen from their iCloud accounts and posted online over the past several weeks sent Google a letter Wednesday threatening a $100 million lawsuit.

Lawyer Martin D. Singer argued that Google is exhibiting "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." He added that Google has not been removing the stolen photos fast enough, pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, The Hollywood Reporter says.

The letter says that Twitter has complied with demands to take down the photos of actresses including Jennifer Lawrence, Kate Upton, Jenny McCarthy, and Kirsten Dunst, but "Google, one of the largest ISPs in the world, with vast resources and a huge support staff, generating multimillions of dollars in revenues on a daily basis, has recklessly allowed these blatant violations to continue in conscious disregard of our clients' rights."

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In a response to USA Today, Google said: "We've removed tens of thousands of pictures — within hours of the requests being made — and we have closed hundreds of accounts. The internet is used for many good things. Stealing people's private photos is not one of them."

Google added that the pictures are still continuously being uploaded, and people must notify the company by flagging content or filing copyright infringement requests in order to get them taken down.