The two owners of a revenge porn site have been ordered to pay $385,000 (£233,000) in damages to a woman who they featured on the site. Eric Chason and Kevin Bollaert are to pay out for the sexually explicit images, which appeared without her consent on the site You Got Posted.
The Jane Doe, who filed her case in 2013, was also underage at the time the photos were taken, and launched a civil action (this is where you sue someone for damages rather than accuse them of a crime) against them at an Ohio Court. It's weird that, considering they were disseminating child pornography, the two men weren't sent to prison, but maybe this was the easiest way the woman could find some solace from what happened.
And the hefty fine could potentially deter other revenge porn site operators. Each defendant will have to pay out $150,000 (£91,000) on a child pornography count, and $10,000 (£6,066) on a right of publicity count (this is for putting the images up without her consent). Then they also have to pay $75,000 (£45,000) in punitive damages, which is basically there as a deterrent to other people thinking of setting up their own revenge porn site.
'The message this $385,000 judgment sends to people who run revenge porn sites is unambiguous. These sites irreparably harm their victims, and often without any criminal action against them.' said the prosecuting attorney, Marc Randzazza, on his blog. 'In this case, a civil suit allowed our client to obtain justice against the people who exploited her.'
Bollaert has previously been indicted and arrested in connection with You Got Posted.
We hope any other women featured on his site get the support they need to come forward and send both of these guys to jail - on our last count, child pornography, and putting up sexually explicit photos of women without their consent, is illegal.
Follow Sophie on Twitter @sophwilkinson
This article originally appeared on The Debrief.