LOS ANGELES — Adult entertainment attorney Marc Randazza filed two civil cases against revenge porn site UGotPosted.com on counts of distributing child pornography and failing to comply with 18 U.S.C. § 2257.
Randazza is representing one client from California and another from Ohio.
According to the Los Angeles case court document, the site posted “lewd and lascivious, sexually explicit images” of 14-year-old Abigail Talley’s gential or public area.
Talley is still a minor and the complaint was filed by her mother against defendants Eric Chanson of New Jersey, his parents, associate Kevin Bollaert and the company Blue Mist Media LLC.
2257 requires individuals or entities hosting adult content to inspect a government-issued form of ID to determine the name and age of every performer featured and to keep records of such information. The document states that had the defendants complied, it would have been apparent that the plaintiff was a minor.
“Frankly, it’s offensive to me as somebody who was in the industry because the industry spends a lot of money and a lot of time complying with 2257, getting model releases signed and paying people to be on their site,” Randazza told XBIZ. “You know, why should these people be selling stolen goods?”
Other counts against the defendants include violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2252 (a)(1) and (a)(2), i.e. transporting material involving the sexual exploitation of a minor and knowingly receiving or distributing child pornography, respectively.
Despite the ongoing case, and intervention by an FBI agent warning the defendants to remove what they deemed child pornography, the defendants have yet to comply and remove the photos in question.
On June 4, a California State Senate panel will consider new legislation that would punish convicted operators of revenge porn websites with one-year jail sentences and impose fines of $1,000.
Randazza believes that the legislation is “well intended but not very well thought out” because law enforcement does not have the resources to enforce as many criminal cases as would be required.
“Look at UGotPosted.com – there are probably 5,000 women and men on there,” Randazza explained. "What are they going to do? Open up 5,000 criminal files? The legislator’s ideas are great but he’s not going to help anybody.”
The attorney, who says he takes on many revenge porn cases pro bono, proposed that the legislators make it a civil claim with injunctive relief.
Revenge porn websites generally profit through aggregation and distribution of sexually explicit photos of unwitting men and women provided by ex-lovers. The photos are often accompanied by the victim's personal information and links to their social media pages, including those on Facebook.
