Hunter Moore, a 27-year-old internet pornography mogul who helped create a new, nauseating, genre of pornography -- so-called "Revenge Porn" -- was arrested by the FBI and indicted on federal charges this week, along with an alleged accomplice. While lawmakers in the U.S. and around the world seek to make revenge porn illegal, Moore's site itself was not the basis of the indictment. However, the charges against Moore stem from how he got some of the content for his revenge porn empire.

Innovation In Humiliation

Moore officially started his revenge porn website, isanyoneup.com, in 2009. The website posted nude pictures of people submitted by vindictive ex-boyfriends, husbands, friends, wives, and girlfriends.

But that's not what made Moore's site pioneering -- or so vile that Rolling Stone magazine once called Moore the "most hated man on the internet," in a 2012 profile. Moore went the extra step of tagging the explicit photos with the full name, profession, hometown, and any other available information relating to the victim -- and he would link to the victim's social media profiles, if possible. Tagging the photos ensured that Google searches for victims' names would bring up the explicit site.

Moore continued operating the site, making money, and gaining public infamy -- often publicly defending his site as if he was doing nothing illegal or even unethical -- until April 2012, when Moore took down and sold the site to anti-bullying website BullyVille, claiming that he had turned a new leaf, while claiming that his revenge porn site was essentially an experiment gone awry: "I had to turn to the porn game for extra money but it's too shady and, in my opinion, it ruined the site ... [BullyVille Founder James McGibney] helped me realize that my talents in the programming and social networking world could be channeled in a positive way and we spoke about ways to move on, which is ultimately what I've decided to do."

Not Out of the Game, or Trouble

But later in 2012, Moore was in the process of launching a new site called HunterMoore.TV, which would include the same content as isanyoneup.com but with a new feature: the full address of the explicitly photographed victims, along with a map pinpointing where the victims live. The project didn't take off, partly because including the address and thus facilitating stalking was more likely to be a prosecutable offence.

Along the way, Moore -- who famously ran with a group of rowdy friends and copious amounts of cocaine -- ran into civil lawsuits for sexual assault, was arrested for head-butting a go-go dancer in New York, and was ordered by a judge to pay BullyVille's James McGibney $250,000 for defamation damages after Moore falsely accused McGibney of being a child pornographer. Moore even became a target for hacker group Anonymous, who found his behavior beyond the pale -- even for an organization known for operating in a morally and legally gray area.

FBI Arrest and Indictment 

While laws against revenge porn weren't on the books until Moore essentially created the concept -- now several states in the U.S. are pushing to legislate against it, and California and Israel recently banned it outright -- Moore was still arrested by the FBI and indicted by a Los Angeles federal grand jury for actions he took to operate the website.

Moore and alleged co-conspirator Charles Evens have been charged with several counts of conspiracy to "access a protected computer without authorization to obtain information for private financial gain." The indictment states that:

"Evens would gain unauthorized access to the e-mail accounts of hundreds of victims ... by various means, including 'hacking' into the victims' accounts, and obtain information, including nude pictures, belonging to the victims and stored on the victims' accounts."

Moore, for his part was:

"... aware that ... Evens had obtained the nude pictures by gaining unauthorized access into the victims' accounts, would send payments to defendant Evens ... in exchange for the nude pictures, would offer defendant Evens additional money to obtain unlawfully additional nude pictures, and would post the victims' nude pictures on his website."  

(Read the full indictment here)

Seven specific victims were named only by their initials, but Kayla Laws has said that topless photos that she had not sent to anyone but herself in email were obtained by Moore, which gave the FBI the lead that Moore might be hacking peoples' accounts. Laws' mother, and now anti-revenge-porn activist, Charlotte Laws was reportedly "ecstatic" about the indictment:

"We're superpleased that the FBI have brought this to fruition. I've talked to several of the victims and they are extremely pleased, and I know all the victims are going to feel happy and they are going to feel that finally justice is being served."