A man has been convicted of running a "revenge porn" website where people posted nude pictures of their ex-lovers, who then had to pay the man to take down the images.
Kevin Bollaert, 28, was found guilty Monday of 27 counts, including identity theft and extortion, and faces up to 20 years in prison.
The San Diego County Superior Court jury was unable to reach verdicts on two charges of identity theft and conspiracy, and a judge declared a mistrial on the counts.
It was believed to be the first conviction of a revenge porn website operator, although two months ago a Los Angeles man who posted a topless photo of his ex-girlfriend on Facebook was sentenced to a year in jail for violating California's new revenge porn law.
The term "revenge porn" is used because most of the explicit images have been posted online by former lovers in attempts to shame their former partners after a break up.
News that makes sense
Your trusted source for staying up-to-date with the world around you. Get free daily news updates and analysis, straight to your inbox.
Between December 2012 and September 2013, Bollaert allowed people to anonymously post more than 10,000 images, mainly of women, on his now-defunct ugotposted.com website without the knowledge of those in the pictures, prosecutors said.
The victims' names, cities where they lived and other information such as links to their Facebook profiles were also posted.
Bollaert also ran another now-defunct website, changemyreputation.com, where victims could go and be charged up to $US350 ($A448) to have the images removed.
Prosecutors said he earned tens of thousands of dollars from the scheme.
