With the stroke of his pen, Governor Brown has made the posting of identifiable nude pictures of someone else online without their permission, coupled with the intent to cause humiliation a punishable offense - with up to six months in jail and a $1,000 fine.

Revenge porn is typically practiced by people who post naked photos of their exes after bitter breakups.

"Until now, there was no tool for law enforcement to protect victims," the bill's author, Senator Anthony Cannella said in a statement. "Too many have had their lives upended because of an action of another that they trusted."

Revenge porn is a growing problem in the age of social media. Photos and videos made privately during a relationship have found their way onto hundreds of Web sites.

California allowed victims to sue their virtual assailants, prior to the criminal law bill was enacted. This has proved to be an expensive and time-consuming option.

The American Civil Liberties Union had opposed the bill, arguing it might restrict free speech rights, which has been a concern in other states as well.

Florida lawmakers rejected a similar bill this year after constitutional free speech concerns surfaced there. Last year, the Missouri Supreme Court cited concerns about free speech in striking down part of a 2008 law enacted after a teenager who was teased online committed ѕυιcιdє.

Only one other state, New Jersey has a revenge porn law. The ruling was passed following the bullying and subsequent ѕυιcιdє of Rutgers student Tyler Clemente, who jumped to his death from the George Washington Bridge after his roommate posted inappropriate video of him and another man.

http://catholic.org/national/national_story.php?id=52621

Not everything they do in California is bad.

It's just another stupid "feel good" law which will net only a handful of very dumb individuals, ruining more lives.  (Kind of like the Brady bill.)  The prolbem here is: 1)  legalized divorce, 2) pornography, and 3) cohabitation.  As long as these are legal, and especially, as long as they are considered moral, people who allow nude pictures of themselves to be taken, even by spouses and/or "significant others", will risk having those images uploaded to the public Internet, or worse yet, the Darknet, and absent a boast and/or confession, it will, with the later (and, even, the former), be difficult to impossible to prove how those images made it to some hidden server located in some unknown location, perhaps, in some far-away country.