[moe]

If someone broke into an apartment lobby

Do you really face 10yrs for breaking into a hollywood apartment and releasing nude tapes you found?

I can see him going to a jail for a while, but 10 years is an awful long time for a crime that very likely didn't leave permanent damage of any kind (psychological, physical or otherwise).

[ChuckMcM]

Guess it varies, according to this report from the Post Office in 2001 https://postalinspectors.uspis.gov/radDocs/pubs/ar01_01.pdf there are both shorter and longer sentences handed out.

I really can't speak for the judicial system of course, I do know that people I've talked to about this case see "email" as being less "real" than physical mail, and I also have spoken to people who have had their mail stolen and used against them. It is hard to be dispassionate about relative punishment in that case.

It may be that if someone stole your mail and published it you would just laugh it off. This guy took it a bit further than that I would say.

And just for context, in California at least since our prisons are over full, the most this guy would serve would be 5 years, and then he'd be eligible for parole in 18 months, less time off for good behavior. I don't know if Florida has similar issues but there are times in the California system where the goal is to have the person spend at least some time in jail and that sometimes requires a longer than expected sentence. (No idea at all if that is the case in Florida though)

[phaus]

I too think that the sentence was extremely harsh, but people can and sometimes do remain permanently traumatized after having nude pictures of themselves posted for the entire world to see.

Just because someone is a celebrity, doesn't mean that he or she wouldn't feel violated, humiliated, or degraded by such an experience. Supposedly the reason that the White Stripes stopped touring was because Meg kept having severe anxiety attacks on stage. This started happening shortly after someone released a sex tape that supposedly featured her. So basically, whether or not it was actually her in the video, the idea that everyone thought it was traumatized her so much that she couldn't even show up to work without having a panic attack. That seems pretty severe to me.

It's also important to note that there are teenagers who have attempted / succeeded in killing themselves as a result of having their private pictures being released.

I think that 10 years is too much, but I don't think for a second that it wasn't a serious crime.