Oregon's revenge porn laws have been on the books for about a year. So far only one person has been convicted: 31-year-old Benjamin J. Barber. He made the odd move of putting himself in front of a camera and poorly defending himself to local TV station KOIN6 earlier this week.
During the interview, he described revenge porn laws as "unconstitutional" and argued he had the right the distribute the videos.
"I understand the judge was increasingly offended by my argument that if a person owns the copyright, and it is them who appears in it that they shouldn't be arrested or charged," he said.
Sergeant Bob Ray with the Washington County Sheriff’s Office disagrees and explained how the law works to the TV station.
“If you use the internet with the intent to harass or embarrass or basically demand someone, and there is sexually explicit material, and you can identify the other person who has not given their consent, that’s essentially the threshold," he said. "If a person does that, they are essentially violating the law. even just posting it on Facebook. Yes, even if the video was taken consensually,."
The details of the case are murky, but Barber seems to use arguments grounded in slut-shaming to justify his actions. “Well okay, so if I go saying that I want to make porn, get paid for making porn and then complain that the porn I asked people to pay me for is then public, do I have a right to be embarrassed?" he asks in the interview.
Actually, yes! If that porn wasn't supposed to be public, that's absolutely a violation of privacy and you don't get the legally post that all over the internet. Barber apparently plans to sue the state of Oregon for violating his first amendment rights. Okay, good luck with that?