It appears that recent celebrity nude leaks were largely due to Apple's lack of security with iCloud. Many believe, simple, old-school brute force hacks were used to access accounts, but now it looks like Google could be on the hook for millions over the debacle.
Marty Singer, a well known Hollywood lawyer, has recently threatened the search giant with a $100 million lawsuit. Singer apparently represents dozens of celebrities whose scandalous photos were leaked, which may very well include people like Jennifer Lawrence, Rihanna and Arianna Grande, among others.
In a letter to Google spotted by Page Six, Singer said the company's "despicable, reprehensible conduct in not only failing to act expeditiously and responsibly to remove the Images, but in knowingly accommodating, facilitating and perpetuating the unlawful conduct."
The lawyer claims Google's behavior has lead to the company making millions off the images in question. Singer says despite take down requests being made up to 4 weeks ago, Google has made massive profits off videos and images being hosted on sites like Blogger and YouTube. The letter claims several requests have been sent since the first few but "Google has taken little or no action to stop these outrageous violations."
Some feel that while the claims against Google seem serious, the legal case may not be as tight as it sounds. Google, like any other internet publishing company, is partly protected from the things its users upload and share. While there may very well be some issues when it comes to the copyright law surrounding these photos, it's hard to imagine Google specifically avoiding takedown requests for monetary reasons. It is more likely a wider legal issue pertaining to online publishing as a whole.
You can see the full letter to Google here.