I’m sure you’ve all heard of the nude images that were leaked on the internet by hackers on the 1st of September of 2014 that infiltrated the phones of hundreds of celebrities. These people have been hurt. Badly. Their private photos and conversations have been thrown everywhere for all to see. Would you react with long heart-felt tweets on human morality? Or would you just shake it off? I personally wouldn’t act in a questionable manner, it is the internet after all, everyone’s a critic. As Actor Mary Elizabeth Winstead stated on twitter, “To those of you looking at photos I took with my husband years ago in the privacy of our home, hope you feel great about yourselves.”

Jennifer Lawrence, ever-growing celebrity and renowned actress who played Katniss in the Hunger Games movies was also a victim of this attack. She, along with many other actors has made clear their discontent and outright loss of trust in their fans. Many journalists and blog writers have debated about whether or not it is a crime to view these images, some saying that doing so is akin to being in possession of stolen goods. Others beg to differ, criticising the celebrities for sexting/ uploading personal and questionable media onto a cloud service when the contents of which can be exploited. In my opinion, none of these celebrities’ careers would be in jeopardy, ‘I was just so afraid. I didn’t know how this would affect my career.’ Says Jennifer Lawrence soon after discovering that her personal images have been leaked into the web.

Clay Aiken, congressional candidate, ‘offered up his two cents’ on the celebrity nude media scandal. ‘Anybody who takes inappropriate pictures of themselves deserves exactly what they get.’ He says this even though he would have been expected to back his fellow celebrities (he was a former American Idol contestant). This neatly brings me onto my second point. WAY too many people decide to fling about their unwanted Good For Yous and You Should Have Thought About Thats before they give enough thought to remember that celebrities are people too, not blessed golden children who have instantly lost the right to have a private life as soon as they gained their first acting/singing award. I’m sure that many people have sent the occasional nude picture to their loved ones, I mean – why wouldn’t they? Not many experienced hackers would go out of their way to hack an ordinary person unless they simply use brute force.
The apple icloud is well known for being hacked into, the account is, after all, accessible after a couple of security questions that anyone can guess. It’s just inconvenient that those answers had belonged to a celebrity.

By definition, only the copyright owner has the right to reproduce and distribute their works. If a photographer takes a picture, the picture is instantly his property. If someone creates an unauthorized copy, as well as an unauthorized download, then it is copyright infringement by law. So technically, the people who have downloaded and shared the images are committing a crime whereas it is not illegal to possess the content. Meaning that the angry article writers should stop scaring people and allow them to act on their own morals, if anything, their articles are what is advertising the event further and making the situation ‘worse’.

“You know what’s so unfortunate?” Actress Teresa Palmer says. “All the women got together and talked it out. We all had photos of boyfriends—some are famous, some are not—who are naked, and none of the photos of famous men were ever released. It was all women. So, it was a personal attack on women, and trying to shame women. I just think it’s disgusting that there were no men—I think there was only one male victim—so women were specifically targeted.”

In my experienced opinion,  I can assure you that this event is not going to end, well not for a long time anyway. Hackers all over the world could gain access to the most complicated of programs and organisations, meaning that almost all efforts made by apple and other online file storage companies will be counteracted.
The only hope our celebrities have in order to maintain their privacy is to not send nudes. At all. Boring? Yes. But essential for them to stay clean? Yes again.