Hoo, that's a relief! I asked Electronic Frontier Foundation staff attorney Jason Schultz to comment on Facebook's cease-and-desist against Gawker Media. (The EFF defends digital freedoms.) (And Jason's just speaking as an expert, not as our lawyer.) He says precedent's on Gawker's side:

Given the newsworthiness of these photos, there's a strong policy protecting websites that post them for news purposes. Both the Apple v. Does case that EFF won and the Bartnicki v. Vopper case before the Supreme Court strongly defend the media's right to report this kind of information and defend the confidentiality of the sources that provide it.

As to the tipsters, the liability for them would depend on each individuals' circumstances. It's funny, though, that Facebook is the one sending the C&D and complaining here instead of the actual individuals in the photo. One wonders if the individuals even care or perhaps enjoy the additional publicity since they were willing to publicly publish the photos in the first place.

Since most of Gawker and Wonkette's Facebook profile analysis went like "He's a drinker! Mr. Drunky-pants, right there!" — and since these are college students — one guesses "the individuals" don't give a damn.

Earlier: Facebook C&D's Gawker for showing super-secret profiles [Valleywag]