Mischa Barton's lawyer means business. After reports surfaced that an alleged sex tape featuring the actress was being shopped around to different pornography companies, her lawyer Lisa Bloom released a statement threatening those responsible.
"I am very proud to represent actress Mischa Barton, who is courageously standing up for her rights,” the statement begins. "It has been reported that naked or sexually explicit images of Ms. Barton are being ‘shopped around.’ Ms. Barton does not consent to any disclosure of any such images. She believes that she was recorded without her consent by someone she was seeing at the time."
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“There’s a name for this disgusting conduct: revenge pornography,” Bloom adds. Revenge porn is when sexually explicit photos or videos are shared either as an act of revenge or simply without the consent of the subject. According to a recent survey by SKYN Condoms, 1 in 3 people have shared a sexual photo without the subject's permission.
Revenge porn laws vary state by state, but when Refinery29 spoke to Daniel S. Szalkiewicz of Daniel Szalkiewicz & Associates, a firm that specialises in internet defamation, privacy, and revenge porn, back in January about Bella Thorne retweeting a nude photo, he explained that the law, found in California Penal Code 647 (j)(4)(A), is very specific.
"There needs to be an implicit understanding between the parties that the image will not be disseminated to other people," Szalkiewicz told us.
Bloom is confident that, should the case be taken to court, she will win.
"Revenge pornography is a form of sexual assault, and it is also a crime and a civil wrong in California," she wrote. "And we will not stand for it."
Whether it's one person or many people who have gotten ahold of this recording, Bloom's message is the same: "We will find you, and we will come after you. We will fully prosecute you under every available criminal and civil law. You proceed at your peril."