After the leak of numerous stolen private videos and photos from the cell phones and online cloud storage accounts of various celebrities  on Aug. 31, 4chan founder Chris "Moot" Poole has added the Digital Millenium Copyright Act takedown policy to its on-site rules and policies. The intimate files were posted on /b/, an Internet forum sub-page on the imageboard website 4chan about random topics that its users would like to talk about.

Like Us on Facebook

Although Poole and 4chan LLC had relied on the quick expiration of the content on the site to keep themselves out of trouble in the past, the heavy scrutiny that was left in the wake of the newest batch of celebrity explicit picture leaks, dubbed the "Fappening," has led the creator to adopt the formal policy to avoid legal actions. The subjects in the stolen pictures could use the policy to file copyright claims and seek compensation from websites and publications in the future, preventing another mass leak of private files.

Under the law, 4chan now would be required to scan and remove posted content when it is alerted to a "bona fide infringement" under the policy. The original poster of the illegal content would also be notified be banned from the site.

"It is the Company's policy... that repeat offenders will have the infringing material removed from the system and that the Company will terminate such content provider's, member's or user's access to the service," the policy stated.

However, if users believe that their posts were unnecessarily deleted, he or she could file a counter-notice on the site.

A DMCA agent would be designated by the policy for the company at the Corporation Service company, an organization that functions as a compliance agent for companies registered in state, in Willington, Del.

TagsLeak, Fappening, internet security, hacking, Data, security breach, Data breach, forum, celebrity, celebrity news