According to an old proverb, it is better to regret something you've done than to regret something you haven't done. A fair adage, perhaps, but one that weakens when you find naked pictures of yourself on the Internet.

A roll's worth of film can become fodder for a vengeful ex-lover as quickly as the shots can be uploaded to the Web. Conservative talk show host Laura Schlessinger found this out the hard way, when topless shots of "Dr. Laura," who had attacked gays for their flamboyant lifestyle, were posted by a jilted ex on the Web in 1999.

From naked photos to reprinted e-mails, the Internet is rapidly becoming a harbor for the harmed, the hurt and the just plain angry, all of whom seek to expose their offenders — although often with questionable legality.

Recently, one 18-year-old Parma, Ohio, teen was given 30 days in jail for superimposing a yearbook picture of his girlfriend on the body of an unclothed woman.

Cases like this are cropping up enough to get the attention of Congress, which partly addressed the issue of vengeful Internet postings in a 2001 piece of legislation called the Personal Pictures Protection Act of 2001. But the bill, which would outlaw the publishing of nude photos of a person without their consent, is still mired in House committees and may never see daylight.

The disconnect between the freedom to publish information and the privacy rights of those who are being outed is a tricky area for Congress to handle, says Shari Steele, the executive director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a non-profit, high-tech civil liberties group.

"When Congress gets involved with creating legislation based on technology, they often write legislation that is way overbroad and that pulls in things that are innocent and makes them illegal," says Steele.

Part of the problem is that the target of the legislation is constantly changing, says Steele. Revenge-seekers don't just post pictures; they have done everything from stating the simple facts of a relationship to employing high-tech recording techniques to document the behavior of their target.

One of the most renowned payback sites is PsychoExGirlfriend.com, a well trafficked page which features voice mail recordings from a spurned woman.

In more than 50 recordings, the woman escalates from pleading to vicious and vengeful. "Its hard enough getting over someone," writes the site's creator. "When she leaves you in excess of 50 psychotic voicemails, it makes it even harder."

The ex-boyfriend, a Dallas man who goes by the name Mark, states his purpose succinctly. "There comes a time in most relationships that one of the two parties wants to end it $#151; and about that time all hell breaks loose. This is a great example of that hell breaking loose."

But posting that "hell" on the Internet, says Steele, could be grounds for a lawsuit. "The argument can be made that this was supposed to be a private type of communication. Depending on the state, he could have violated that privacy. Could she have reasonably foreseen that he would take these voicemails and put them on the Internet?"

If Psycho Ex Girlfriend seems extreme, consider the "Michael Schmidt Warning Site", created by a cuckolded man bent on warning others about a man he says stole his wife.

"I posted this 'Public Warning' in hopes this man, and his actions will never hurt other families the way he has mine," says the site's anonymous creator. "This site will serve as "public shame" for ... hurting my children and family."

Along with posting the alleged offender's photograph, the creator of the site also lists the man's work phone number and e-mail addresses.

Legally, there's probably no problem with that, Steele says. "As long as it's truthful," she explains. "Just because it paints him in a bad light is not good enough."

But what does this sort of behavior achieve? According to relationship psychologist Debra Moore, these sites can have a range of effects on their intended victims. "They're going to either be outraged or feel humiliated," says Moore. "Or if they're a particularly strong person, they may realize that it's a sad statement about the person who put it up."

And that, says Moore, is what the revenge sites say more than anything — that the creators are the ones who are hurting. "This is the primitive level at which they know how to cope. It's indicative of an immature self that doesn't know how to soothe itself when it's wounded," she says.

Then there's pedophileneighbor.com, which takes the concept of coping and retribution to another level entirely. After years of fruitless attempts to land her father — who she says sexually abused her and her sister — in prison, Lori Lawler decided to tell her story on the Internet.

With pedophileneighbor.com, Lawler's aim is not to get even so much as to warn others about a man she considers to be a dangerous criminal — and to talk about something that, for her, was too long kept a secret.

"My childhood was spent wanting Daddy's love and attention but without the sexual molestation that occurred regularly. No one ever talked about it," she writes on the site.

Lawler's site, which is a direct alert to members of the Connecticut community where her father lives, is a sort of vigilante version of the many sex offender registries used by states across the U.S. to warn residents that an offender may live in their community.

But sex offender registries are devoid of the personal attention that Lawler has given to outing her offender. "My father is the classic pedophile. He is a sex offender. And he is still free to roam, find children, and bring them into his home, covering all legal bases. I have exhausted every legal means of stopping my father," she writes.

For those seeking a less elaborate means of payback, there's yet another Internet option. At revengeunlimited.com, wronged parties can order a variety of reading materials ("Don't Get Mad — Get Even," by Jane Inder and Hilary Eyre") and gifts (a dozen long-stem dead roses) to fulfill that vengeful desire without the hassle of designing a Web site — or prominent threat of lawsuit.

The site's creators don't guarantee results and emphatically deny responsibility "for any actions by persons who visit this site," but they do offer recourse for those who have fallen victim to the site's services: "If you are a victim of a Revenge Unlimited prank, welcome. Remember 'Payback is a ...'"

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