'Revenge porn' site owner Hunter Moore ordered to pay $250,000 for defamation

The founder of a "revenge porn" website has been ordered to pay $250,000 for falsely claiming an anti-bullying advocate was a pedophile.

A district court judge ordered Hunter Moore to pay the sum to James McGibney, the CEO of Bullyville.com. Moore was also ordered to pay $11,581 in attorneys' fees and $1,588.50 in other costs associated with the case.

Last year, McGibney convinced Moore to shut down his notorious "revenge porn" website, which published photographs of nude women without their consent. Moore sold IsAnyoneUp.com to McGibney, but then began taunting the anti-bullying advocate via Twitter. Moore accused McGibney of being in possession of child pornography and also threatened to rape his wife. In response, McGibney filed a defamation lawsuit against him.

"In this case, Hunter Moore falsely accused our client of possessing child pornography and engaging in child abuse," Attorney Marc Randazza, who represented McGibney, told Ars Technica. "As you can see in the judgment, this was not just a situation where the plaintiff was merely upset by the defendant's words. We were required to put on evidence of damages, which we did. The court agreed that we proved up $250,000 in damages, which is everything we asked for on the client's behalf."

McGibney said he would donate the $250,000 to women's shelters.