The candidate’s attorney, Daniel P. Watkins, told the Washington Post that the archived videos violated Virginia’s revenge porn law. He cited a 2021 Virginia Appeals Court ruling that it was illegal for a man to secretly record his girlfriend during a consensual sexual encounter. Now that the videos are circulating for free, Cockburn understands why the enterprising candidate is mad, but someone has to remind her that she was the one to post them.

After examining the evidence carefully, Cockburn has just one concern — Gibson’s campaign ads claim that she is standing up to special interests. Shouldn’t that be, er, “specialist”…? Anyway, the Democrats should fast-track her into the governor’s race against Glenn Youngkin: Cockburn knows star quality when he sees it.

[Clearly a satirical defense, and one worth reading in full. The upshot, legally speaking, is that a public person made sexually explicit entertainment and published it herself for compensation. Sharing and highlighting that published material isn’t revenge porn under any definition — these were made for commercial purposes, not for private enjoyment between two non-public persons. There could be a copyright issue for those passing these along, but given the interest in Gibson as a candidate for political office, my guess is that a strong fair-use exception would apply. — Ed]