PORTLAND, Ore. -- A 31-year-old man
became the first individual to be prosecuted and sentenced under Oregon’s new
revenge porn law.
Benjamin J. Barber was sentenced on
Thursday morning, according to the Washington County Sheriff’s Office. He
received 6 months in jail and 5 years of probation.
In July, Barber was arrested for
posting several pornographic videos of himself and a person he had once been in
an intimate relationship with. When that relationship ended, Barber uploaded
the videos to several adult websites without permission, authorities said.
Barber was convicted of five counts
of unlawful dissemination of an intimate image, Oregon’s new revenge porn law.
In an interview with Barber, he said, “I understand people are going to
think I look creepy,” Barber said. “I have this blown out eye.”
He continued, “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?”
Barber claimed the videos
were copyrighted porn videos, and he has the right to post them wherever he
wants.
“There was a lot of evidence that
was not included in the testimony, specifically like the fact that we were both
advertising to produce porn commercially,” said Barber.
Barber said he’s the victim, and the
woman he shared videos of tried to use them against him as blackmail.
Sgt. Bob Ray with the Washington
County Sheriff’s Office explained the law.
“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. 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,” Ray said.
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