Luis Mijangos, a computer programmer from Souther California, was sentenced to six years in prison last week for hacking into several women's computers, finding explicit photos and videos, and using them to demand more.

Mijangos apparently gained access to the computers by sending "malicious software disguised as popular songs or videos"; the malware would then infect other people's computers independently. All told, he was able to control over 100 computers:

He read their emails, watched them through webcams without their knowledge and most damaging was his discovery of nude photos they had taken of themselves. Mijangos then threatened to post the images online unless his victims were willing to provide more racy photos or videos to him or if they went to police, according to court documents. He also posed as some of the victims' boyfriends to convince them to send him nude pictures.

Mijangos eventually followed through on his threat in at least one instance by posting naked pictures of a woman on her friend's MySpace page.

People—look—I don't know how much more bluntly I can put this: Stop with the n00ds. You know how nerds are always saying "information wants to be free"? What they mean is that pictures of your sex parts ("information") want to end up duplicated endlessly across the internet, forever, where they will be found and masturbated over by the grossest people you can imagine ("free"). Racy digital photographs will get you in trouble, at some point. It's just how the internet works! Which means that if you absolutely, positively, must document your genitalia, there's only one solution: Polaroid.

[AP; image of Mijangos, center, via AP]