Full Text of SB1507 101st General Assembly
SB1507eng 101ST GENERAL ASSEMBLY |
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| 1 | | AN ACT concerning civil law.
| 2 | | Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois,
| 3 | | represented in the General Assembly:
| 4 | | Section 1. Short title. This Act may be cited as the Civil | 5 | | Remedies for Nonconsensual Dissemination of Private Sexual | 6 | | Images Act. | 7 | | Section 5. Definitions. As used in this Act: | 8 | | (1) "Child" means an unemancipated individual who is less | 9 | | than 18 years of age. | 10 | | (2) "Consent" means affirmative, conscious, and voluntary | 11 | | authorization by an individual with legal capacity to give | 12 | | authorization. | 13 | | (3) "Depicted individual" means an individual whose body is | 14 | | shown, in whole or in part, in a private sexual image. | 15 | | (4) "Dissemination" or "disseminate" means transfer, | 16 | | publication, or distribution to another person. | 17 | | (5) "Harm" means physical harm, economic harm, or emotional | 18 | | distress whether or not accompanied by physical or economic | 19 | | harm. | 20 | | (6) "Identifiable" means recognizable by a person other | 21 | | than the depicted individual: | 22 | | (A) from a private sexual image itself; or | 23 | | (B) from a private sexual image and identifying |
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| 1 | | characteristic displayed in connection with the image. | 2 | | (7) "Identifying characteristic" means information that | 3 | | may be used to identify a depicted individual. | 4 | | (8) "Individual" means a human being. | 5 | | (9) "Parent" means an individual recognized as a parent | 6 | | under laws of this State. | 7 | | (10) "Private" means: | 8 | | (A) created or obtained under circumstances in which a | 9 | | depicted individual had a reasonable expectation of | 10 | | privacy; or | 11 | | (B) made accessible through theft, bribery, extortion, | 12 | | fraud, false pretenses, voyeurism, or exceeding authorized | 13 | | access to an account, message, file, device, resource, or | 14 | | property. | 15 | | (11) "Private sexual image" means a photograph, film, | 16 | | videotape, digital recording, or other similar medium that | 17 | | shows: | 18 | | (A) the fully unclothed, partially unclothed, or | 19 | | transparently clothed genitals, pubic area, anus, or | 20 | | female post-pubescent nipple, partially or fully exposed, | 21 | | of a depicted individual; or | 22 | | (B) a depicted individual engaging in or being | 23 | | subjected to sexual conduct or activity. | 24 | | (12) "Person" means an individual, estate, business or | 25 | | nonprofit entity, public corporation, government or | 26 | | governmental subdivision, agency, instrumentality, or other |
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| 1 | | legal entity. | 2 | | (13) "Sexual conduct" includes: | 3 | | (A) masturbation; | 4 | | (B) genital sex, anal sex, oral sex, or sexual | 5 | | activity; or | 6 | | (C) sexual penetration of or with an object. | 7 | | (14) "Sexual activity" means any: | 8 | | (A) knowing touching or fondling by the depicted | 9 | | individual, another person, or animal, either directly or | 10 | | through clothing, of the sex organs, anus, or breast of the | 11 | | depicted individual, another person, or animal for the | 12 | | purpose of sexual gratification or arousal; | 13 | | (B) transfer or transmission of semen upon any part of | 14 | | the clothed or unclothed body of the depicted individual, | 15 | | for the purpose of sexual gratification or arousal of the | 16 | | depicted individual or another person; | 17 | | (C) act of urination within a sexual context; | 18 | | (D) bondage, fetter, sadism, or masochism; or | 19 | | (E) sadomasochistic abuse in any sexual context. | 20 | | Section 10. Civil action. | 21 | | (a) Except as otherwise provided in Section 15, if a | 22 | | depicted individual is identifiable and suffers harm from a | 23 | | person's intentional dissemination or threatened dissemination | 24 | | of a private sexual image without the depicted individual's | 25 | | consent, the depicted individual has a cause of action against |
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| 1 | | the person if the person knew or acted with reckless disregard | 2 | | for whether: | 3 | | (1) the depicted individual did not consent to the | 4 | | dissemination;
| 5 | | (2) the image was a private sexual image; and
| 6 | | (3) the depicted individual was identifiable.
| 7 | | (b) The following conduct by a depicted individual does not | 8 | | establish by itself that the individual consented to the | 9 | | nonconsensual dissemination of a private sexual image that is | 10 | | the subject of an action under this Act or that the individual | 11 | | lacked a reasonable expectation of privacy:
| 12 | | (1) consent to creation of the image; or
| 13 | | (2) previous consensual disclosure of the image.
| 14 | | (c) A depicted individual who does not consent to the | 15 | | sexual conduct or uncovering of the part of the body depicted | 16 | | in a sexual image of the individual retains a reasonable | 17 | | expectation of privacy even if the image was created when the | 18 | | individual was in a public place. | 19 | | (d) Nothing in this Act shall be construed to impose | 20 | | liability on an interactive computer service, as defined in 47 | 21 | | U.S.C. 230(f)(2), for content provided by another person. | 22 | | Section 15. Exceptions to liability. | 23 | | (a) A person is not liable under this Act if the person | 24 | | proves that the dissemination of or a threat to disseminate a | 25 | | private sexual image was: |
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| 1 | | (1) made in good faith: | 2 | | (A) by law enforcement; | 3 | | (B) in a legal proceeding; or | 4 | | (C) for medical education or treatment; | 5 | | (2) made in good faith in the reporting or | 6 | | investigation of: | 7 | | (A) unlawful conduct; or | 8 | | (B) unsolicited and unwelcome conduct; | 9 | | (3) related to a matter of public concern or public | 10 | | interest; or | 11 | | (4) reasonably intended to assist the depicted | 12 | | individual. | 13 | | (b) Subject to subsection (c), a defendant who is a parent, | 14 | | legal guardian, or individual with legal custody of a child is | 15 | | not liable under this Act for a dissemination or threatened | 16 | | dissemination of an intimate private sexual image of the child. | 17 | | (c) If a defendant asserts an exception to liability under | 18 | | subsection (b), the exception does not apply if the plaintiff | 19 | | proves the disclosure was: | 20 | | (1) prohibited by a law other than this Act; or | 21 | | (2) made for the purpose of sexual arousal, sexual | 22 | | gratification, humiliation, degradation, or monetary or | 23 | | commercial gain. | 24 | | (d) The dissemination of or a threat to disseminate a | 25 | | private sexual image is not a matter of public concern or | 26 | | public interest solely because the depicted individual is a |
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| 1 | | public figure. | 2 | | Section 20. Plaintiff's privacy. | 3 | | (a) In an action under this Act: | 4 | | (1) a plaintiff may proceed by using a pseudonym in | 5 | | place of the true name of the plaintiff under Section 2-401 | 6 | | of the Code of Civil Procedure; and | 7 | | (2) the court may exclude or redact from all pleadings | 8 | | and documents filed in the action other identifying | 9 | | characteristics of the plaintiff. | 10 | | (b) A plaintiff to whom paragraph (2) of subsection (a) | 11 | | applies shall file with the court and serve on the defendant a | 12 | | confidential information form that includes the excluded or | 13 | | redacted plaintiff's name and other identifying | 14 | | characteristics. | 15 | | (c) The court may make further orders as necessary to | 16 | | protect the identity and privacy of a plaintiff. | 17 | | Section 25. Remedies. | 18 | | (a) In an action under this Act, a prevailing plaintiff may | 19 | | recover: | 20 | | (1) the greater of: | 21 | | (A) economic and noneconomic damages proximately | 22 | | caused by the defendant's dissemination or threatened | 23 | | dissemination, including damages for emotional | 24 | | distress whether or not accompanied by other damages; |
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| 1 | | or | 2 | | (B) statutory damages against each defendant found | 3 | | liable under this Act for all disseminations and | 4 | | threatened disseminations by the defendant of which | 5 | | the plaintiff knew or reasonably should have known when | 6 | | filing the action or that became known during the | 7 | | pendency of the action. In determining the amount of | 8 | | statutory damages under this subsection, consideration | 9 | | shall be given to the age of the parties at the time of | 10 | | the disseminations or threatened disseminations, the | 11 | | number of disseminations or threatened disseminations | 12 | | made by the defendant, the breadth of distribution of | 13 | | the image by the defendant, and other exacerbating or | 14 | | mitigating factors; | 15 | | (2) an amount equal to any monetary gain made by the | 16 | | defendant from dissemination of the private sexual image; | 17 | | and | 18 | | (3) punitive damages. | 19 | | (b) In an action under this Act, the court may award a | 20 | | prevailing plaintiff: | 21 | | (1) reasonable attorney's fees and costs; and | 22 | | (2) additional relief, including injunctive relief. | 23 | | (c) This Act does not affect a right or remedy available | 24 | | under any other law of this State. | 25 | | Section 30. Statute of limitations. |
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| 1 | | (a) An action under subsection (b) of Section 10 for: | 2 | | (1) a nonconsensual dissemination may not be brought | 3 | | later than 4 years from the date the dissemination was | 4 | | discovered or should have been discovered with the exercise | 5 | | of reasonable diligence; and | 6 | | (2) a threat to disseminate may not be brought later | 7 | | than 4 years from the date of the threat to disseminate. | 8 | | (b) Except as otherwise provided in subsection (c), this | 9 | | Section is subject to the tolling statutes of this State. | 10 | | (c) In an action under subsection (a) of Section 10 by a | 11 | | depicted individual who was a minor on the date of the | 12 | | dissemination or threat to disseminate, the time specified in | 13 | | subsection (a) of this Section does not begin to run until the | 14 | | depicted individual attains the age of majority.
| 15 | | Section 35. Severability. If any provision of this Act or | 16 | | its application to any person or circumstance is held invalid, | 17 | | the invalidity does not affect other provisions or applications | 18 | | of this Act that can be given effect without the invalid | 19 | | provision or application, and to this end, the provisions of | 20 | | this Act are severable.
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