Stalker ex. Advice needed please.

[rachel79]

Hi, I'm hoping someone can offer some advice.
I just found out that my ex partner hacked into my hotmail account and read some of my personal emails and sent some personal photos of me to his laptop and saved them.
Sorry to sound naive but has he broken any laws at all by having photo's that don't belong to him without my consent?
Thanks in advance, Rachel.

[Buenchico]

Saving a picture from the internet (without the permission of the copyright owner) is a civil offence, for which someone could (theoretically) be sued but not fined or imprisoned. (i.e. in theory, you shouldn't right-click on a picture of your favourite film star, and select 'save picture', unless the copyright holder has given you permission to do so). In practice (unless a celebrity photograph is stolen for commercial purposes or a professional photographer has his copyright violated, causing him financial loss) such cases never come to court.

However, hacking into someone else's email account (irrespective of whether any photographs are obtained by doing so) is a criminal offence, which can lead to up to 2 years imprisonment (and/or a fine):
http://www.statutelaw.gov.uk/content.aspx?LegT ype=All+Legislation&title=misuse+computer&sear chEnacted=0&extentMatchOnly=0&confersPower=0&b lanketAmendment=0&sortAlpha=0&TYPE=QS&PageNumb er=1&NavFrom=0&parentActiveTextDocId=1353366&A ctiveTextDocId=1353370&filesize=7750

Chris

[caththecrazy]

How do you know it was him who hacked into it?

Just asking as a friend had something similar happen and although she was pretty certain who it was, she couldn't prove it.

[rachel79]

Hi, thank you for your answers.
The reason I know it was him, he told me he had looked into my email and my mother has just been on the phone to say that my ex showed her my emails and personal photos. Obviously I'm horrified at this and panic stricken at the thought that if he can show my mother whats to stop him putting them on the internet?

[rachel79]

As he had saved it to his laptop he showed her.