California Attorney General Xavier Becerra on Thursday filed extortion and money laundering charges against the owners of a website that publishes mugshot photos and charges a fee to remove them.
His office is targeting Mugshots.com, which pulls photos and identifying information about criminal suspects from law enforcement departments around the country. The site charges a “de-publishing fee” to remove someone from its archives, according to Becerra’s office.
Becerra said it has frustrated people who were accused of crimes they did not commit.
“This pay-for-removal scheme attempts to profit off of someone else’s humiliation,” Becerra said. “Those who can’t afford to pay into this scheme to have their information removed pay the price when they look for a job, housing, or try to build relationships with others. This is exploitation, plain and simple.”
Related links:
Use copyright law to battle mugshot extortion [abajournal.com 3/27/18]
“Those who can’t afford to pay into this scheme to have their information removed pay the price when they look for a job, housing, or try to build relationships with others. This is exploitation, plain and simple.”
How is this any different from people in the registry? After all, some states make you pay a “fee” just for the privilege of being on the registry. Why isn’t that exploitation or a shakedown?
Well maybe this is the start of something good?
What about sites like homefacts.com? Doesn’t the (CA at least) Megan’s law website prohibit the re-posting of such information to begin with? Why doesn’t the state of CA take their own laws seriously? If it is a crime for me to view the Megan’s law website, how are they not endangering me by putting the same information on a space where I can easily view this supposedly illegal (for me) information?
Looks like these people are getting a taste of what it’s like to be on the SO registry. Hopefully this event will somehow connect to SO registry photo exploitation and the damage it causes. Hopefully.
This is excellent news. Looks like karma is finally catching up to those SOBs. My mugshot comes up 1st in a Google search of my name thanks to their website. I hope their fellow travelers take note of this.
Man i need a citation to the actual complaint or indictment to be able to use this against them….Anyone????
So, California Attorney General Xavier Becerra is admitting that publishing this type of information results in problems when “they look for a job, housing, or try to build relationships with others”?
How can he justify the sex offender registry doing this to people for life even after serving their court ordered sentence and returning to the public? Is spite of any laws, they are still discriminated against and the AG is admitting that. This needs to be used against California to stop people from being on any type of registry without proper Substantive Due Process to keep off those that don’t need that type of punishment and discrimination. You can use his own words against him.
2 owners were just arrested in FLORIDA
So if the registry is abolished, the internet will still hold our information. There will need to be a lot of clean. This will have to be part of the restitution. It’s like the unexploded ordinance still plaguing countries like Viet Nam.