This is a stupid argument. He violated his own anonymity.
Yes he did. If I hire someone it’s not just because they can complete a certain task. I’m hiring someone that will represent my business and I’m hiring someone I think is a good person and can trust. If that person turns out to be the skidmark on society’s underpants, well then, I’ll be happy to find someone that can do the job just as well, who I can trust around my customers, and who I don’t find to be morally reprehensible.
I’d also add that where there is smoke there is likely fire. I hope the local police have this pos under a magnifying glass because it wouldn’t surprise me in the least if he has more nefarious things going on.
Gawker posted another write up that I think makes some interesting points:
I have never visited Reddit, but for some reason this story fascinates me. The guy who was identified gave his name and information to others in the Reddit community. It was only a matter of time before his identity became public knowledge.
However, the internet’s biggest troll was apparently outed by…a troll. The internet is so interesting.
There is no anonymity on the internet because … reality. In reality, it’s just not that hard to identify people online. Most people don’t even take any effort to hide themselves. This includes people like Violentacrez, who attended Reddit meetups and introduced himself to people as VA and the morons at Predittors who use the same nick for all their activities.
It’s like a little kid at Halloween thinking he’s invisible because he’s wearing his ghost costume. Unless you’re a five year old, the rest of the universe is not obligated to go along with your illusions.
Also: the internet’s greatest attribute is that it allows people to communicate, period, not that it allows us to hide behind shadows.
I’m not going to defend VA as he’s obviously a massive troll and a pretty terrible human being.
With that said, I do have to point out one thing about that r/creepshots subreddit. Before it was taken down, I did visit this forum to see what all the fuss was about (drama over this subreddit started gathering steam a few weeks ago, before it was banned).
The photos posted on that forum were of unsuspecting girls’ legs, asses, and tits - all clothed (except for the legs, I suppose). The photos posted were legal as you have no right to your image in a public place. Does it make you creepy? Sure, of course it does. Does it make you a criminal? No.
It was also made clear that “upskirt” and “downblouse” type photos were not allowed on that subreddit - or anywhere on Reddit for that matter. Those types of photos are illegal in most (if not all) states and therefore were not allowed on Reddit. In fact, part of what VA did as a mod in Creepshots was to delete those types of photos when they were posted.
Now, again, I’m not defending this douche. He deserves shitty things to happen to him. I just want to point out that there are plenty of reasons to hate this guy without making stuff up.
I think this speaks to the reality of the situation. If you really want to be anonymous, you have to work at it, because other people are under no particular obligation to grant you anonymity.
This is kind of the problem. I remember how ten years ago the internet wasn’t real life. You didn’t every day have daily stories about this or that “sicko troll” in the tabloids. You didn’t have constant attempts to regulate content at the national level. Every twelve year old nerd had a copy of the anarchist’s cookbook without fearing arrest like they would now.
It was a much better time, that. Now we have to put up with the mediocrity of conformity. 
No, you can still dye your hair, get a tattoo, and rally against the man, Man. You just can’t create an anonymous online sociopath to bully, humiliate, exploit, and drive people to suicide without repercussion.
So you think the Reddit troll is free and clear and deserves protection because he’s done nothing illegal, but when it comes to the Gawker writer’s freedom to out the troll and the protection of his right to do so:
So only the Gawker writer should be held to moral standards, but VA? Nothing illegal, he’s good to go!
I’ll just reiterate what seems to be becoming my mantra, here: nothing on the internet is private. If you want it private, don’t put it on the internet. If you want it anonymous, don’t connect it to personally identifiable information. If you think you’re going to get away unnoticed when behaving like a dick in a venue that is essentially a public square, well I’m not particularly sympathetic to you when you discover that actions have consequences.
How can it even protect him, or anyone? How does it maintain anyone’s privacy to ban links to external websites? The people who work at Gawker can still read Reddit – which was how the guy was found out – and they’re certainly still free to write about Reddit, too. It’s not stopping anyone from digging up Redditors’ poorly concealed skeletons.
So there’s the big lie. They’ll tell you it’s about protecting privacy, even though it doesn’t, so they can “get away” with throwing a tantrum like a 2-year-old. It’s sad that even some of the less-creepy sub-Reddits are jumping on this bandwagon.
I’ve thought about this some more and I feel even less sorry for him than I did initially.
I liked what Adrian Chen said on NPR. To paraphrase, he said that as a general principle he values internet anonymity, but he views that anonymity as a way to prevent vulnerable people from being exploited. In VA’s case, he was the powerful person exploiting vulnerable people, therefore he sees no reason to justify his anonymity. Works for me.
Who took away his right to make it? He can still do whatever he wants on the internet.
I think that’s overly simplistic.
Would you say that of someone who, instead of creepshots and incest, was known on the internet for gay porn?
I’m with brickbacon on this. How many people have to find what you do reprehensible before it becomes good to expose your pseudonym?
Obviously I do find Brutsch’s behavior reprehensible, but … well, gay porn.
That’s what I’m wondering. His free speech wasn’t curtailed. He just had to face consequences because of it. He is still free to pursue his hobbies. And if he chooses to continue to piss people off, he chooses to suffer potential consequences for doing so.
Maybe one of his Paypal backers will offer him a job. I can tell you that every job I’ve held since I left my teens would have let me go once the press started asking questions of such actions. They wouldn’t want to be guilty by association, and I wouldn’t blame them. But it is kind of bad when a payday loan company doesn’t want to be guilty by association. 
It’s worth noting that no one was driven to suicide, or anything like it, while only nerds were online.
He wasn’t as careful about it as he should have been, but it’s clear he expected it to remain intact. It’s one thing not to keep something a secret. It’s quite another to call someone out on a major blog site, along with their name, picture, and location.
There’s no anonymity in a gay club either, because reality, but there is still a reasonable expectation that people won’t follow you there and report on your identity and behavior there on a major blog site.
Maybe, but anonymity it still high up on the list.
There’s no obligation per se, but it’s the right thing to do, generally.
They are both wrong. What’s your point? It’s wrong to cheat at Monopoly, but it’s wronger to punch someone for doing do.
This creepily reminds me of the “well she shouldn’t have been wearing that short skirt in a bad neighborhood” sorts of comments.
It’s also the right thing to NOT go online with the express purpose of pissing people off.
You’re right. I have a reasonable expectation that people won’t be following me should I decide to go to a gay bar. But I may also reasonable expect that a mis-named Moral Majority might be watching the entrance to the gay bar, so it behooves me to be careful. Most likely, they wouldn’t know me, but there might be consequences if they did AND they had pull someplace else I frequent (especially a place that was also homophobic in nature, like when I was in the USAF back in the 80s). As I’ve not made a public spectacle of myself, in reality almost no one would care.
VA made a public spectacle of himself. People cared. Proudly trolling, he was essentially saying “Look at me!”. Dorothy just pulled back the curtain.
Was this troll raped for wearing a short skirt? It’s not illegal to rip off the hood of an asshole.
By the way I’m not saying that overall it’s a bad thing that now everyone is on the internet. No doubt it’s for the best (and internet culture is of course affecting the wider world and I think that if things go right then the next fifty years will be the most interesting fifty years ever).
But it doesn’t change that the modern internet has lost something over the earlier internet. It was like the wild west in a way I suppose.