Illinois General Assembly - Full Text of SB1507
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Full Text of SB1507  101st General Assembly

SB1507enr 101ST GENERAL ASSEMBLY

  
  
  

 


 
SB1507 EnrolledLRB101 09526 LNS 54624 b

1    AN ACT concerning civil law.
 
2    Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois,
3represented in the General Assembly:
 
4    Section 1. Short title. This Act may be cited as the Civil
5Remedies for Nonconsensual Dissemination of Private Sexual
6Images Act.
 
7    Section 5. Definitions. As used in this Act:
8    (1) "Child" means an unemancipated individual who is less
9than 18 years of age.
10    (2) "Consent" means affirmative, conscious, and voluntary
11authorization by an individual with legal capacity to give
12authorization.
13    (3) "Depicted individual" means an individual whose body is
14shown, in whole or in part, in a private sexual image.
15    (4) "Dissemination" or "disseminate" means publication or
16distribution to another person with intent to disclose.
17    (5) "Harm" means physical harm, economic harm, or emotional
18distress whether or not accompanied by physical or economic
19harm.
20    (6) "Identifiable" means recognizable by a person other
21than 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
3may be used to identify a depicted individual.
4    (8) "Individual" means a human being.
5    (9) "Parent" means an individual recognized as a parent
6under 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, voyeurism, or exceeding authorized access to an
13    account, message, file, device, resource, or property.
14    (11) "Person" means an individual, business or nonprofit
15entity, public corporation, government or governmental
16subdivision, agency, or other legal entity.
17    (12) "Sexual conduct" includes:
18        (A) masturbation;
19        (B) genital sex, anal sex, oral sex, or sexual
20    activity; or
21        (C) sexual penetration of or with an object.
22    (13) "Sexual activity" means any:
23        (A) knowing touching or fondling by the depicted
24    individual or another person, either directly or through
25    clothing, of the sex organs, anus, or breast of the
26    depicted individual or another person for the purpose of

 

 

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1    sexual gratification or arousal;
2        (B) transfer or transmission of semen upon any part of
3    the clothed or unclothed body of the depicted individual,
4    for the purpose of sexual gratification or arousal of the
5    depicted individual or another person;
6        (C) act of urination within a sexual context;
7        (D) bondage, fetish, sadism, or masochism;
8        (E) sadomasochistic abuse in any sexual context; or
9        (F) animal-related sexual activity.
10    (14) "Sexual image" means a photograph, film, videotape,
11digital recording, or other similar medium that shows:
12        (A) the fully unclothed, partially unclothed, or
13    transparently clothed genitals, pubic area, anus, or
14    female post-pubescent nipple, partially or fully exposed,
15    of a depicted individual; or
16        (B) a depicted individual engaging in or being
17    subjected to sexual conduct or activity.
 
18    Section 10. Civil action.
19    (a) Except as otherwise provided in Section 15, if a
20depicted individual is identifiable to a reasonable person and
21suffers harm from the intentional dissemination or threatened
22dissemination by a person over the age of 18 of a private
23sexual image without the depicted individual's consent, the
24depicted individual has a cause of action against the person if
25the person knew:

 

 

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1        (1) the depicted individual did not consent to the
2    dissemination;
3        (2) the image was a private sexual image; and
4        (3) the depicted individual was identifiable.
5    (b) The following conduct by a depicted individual does not
6establish by itself that the individual consented to the
7nonconsensual dissemination of a private sexual image that is
8the subject of an action under this Act or that the individual
9lacked a reasonable expectation of privacy:
10        (1) consent to creation of the image; or
11        (2) previous consensual disclosure of the image.
12    (c) Nothing in this Act shall be construed to impose
13liability on an interactive computer service, as defined in 47
14U.S.C. 230(f)(2), for content provided by another person.
 
15    Section 15. Exceptions to liability.
16    (a) A person is not liable under this Act if the person
17proves that the dissemination of or a threat to disseminate a
18private sexual image was:
19        (1) made in good faith:
20            (A) by law enforcement;
21            (B) in a legal proceeding; or
22            (C) for medical education or treatment;
23        (2) made in good faith in the reporting or
24    investigation of:
25            (A) unlawful conduct; or

 

 

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1            (B) unsolicited and unwelcome conduct; or
2        (3) related to a matter of public concern.
3    (b) Subject to subsection (c), a defendant who is a parent,
4legal guardian, or individual with legal custody of a child is
5not liable under this Act for a dissemination or threatened
6dissemination of an intimate private sexual image of the child.
7    (c) If a defendant asserts an exception to liability under
8subsection (b), the exception does not apply if the plaintiff
9proves the disclosure was:
10        (1) prohibited by a law other than this Act; or
11        (2) made for the purpose of sexual arousal, sexual
12    gratification, humiliation, degradation, or monetary or
13    commercial gain.
14    (d) The dissemination of or a threat to disseminate a
15private sexual image is not a matter of public concern solely
16because the depicted individual is a public figure.
 
17    Section 20. Privacy of parties.
18    (a) In an action under this Act:
19        (1) a plaintiff may proceed by using a pseudonym in
20    place of the true name of the plaintiff under Section 2-401
21    of the Code of Civil Procedure; and
22        (2) the court may exclude or redact from all pleadings
23    and documents filed in the action other identifying
24    characteristics of the plaintiff.
25    (b) A plaintiff to whom paragraph (2) of subsection (a)

 

 

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1applies shall file with the court and serve on the defendant a
2confidential information form that includes the excluded or
3redacted plaintiff's name and other identifying
4characteristics.
5    (c) The court may make further orders as necessary to
6protect the identity and privacy of a plaintiff.
7    (d) If a plaintiff is granted privacy protections under
8this Section, a defendant may file a motion with the court to
9receive the same privacy protections. The court may deny or
10grant the motion at its discretion.
 
11    Section 25. Remedies.
12    (a) In an action under this Act, a prevailing plaintiff may
13recover:
14        (1) the greater of:
15            (A) economic and noneconomic damages proximately
16        caused by the defendant's dissemination or threatened
17        dissemination, including damages for emotional
18        distress whether or not accompanied by other damages;
19        or
20            (B) statutory damages, not to exceed $10,000,
21        against each defendant found liable under this Act for
22        all disseminations and threatened disseminations by
23        the defendant of which the plaintiff knew or reasonably
24        should have known when filing the action or that became
25        known during the pendency of the action. In determining

 

 

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1        the amount of statutory damages under this subsection,
2        consideration shall be given to the age of the parties
3        at the time of the disseminations or threatened
4        disseminations, the number of disseminations or
5        threatened disseminations made by the defendant, the
6        breadth of distribution of the image by the defendant,
7        and other exacerbating or mitigating factors;
8        (2) an amount equal to any monetary gain made by the
9    defendant from dissemination of the private sexual image;
10    and
11        (3) punitive damages.
12    (b) In an action under this Act, the court may award a
13prevailing plaintiff:
14        (1) reasonable attorney's fees and costs; and
15        (2) additional relief, including injunctive relief.
16    (c) This Act does not affect a right or remedy available
17under any other law of this State.
 
18    Section 30. Statute of limitations.
19    (a) An action under subsection (b) of Section 10 for:
20        (1) a nonconsensual dissemination may not be brought
21    later than 2 years from the date the dissemination was
22    discovered or should have been discovered with the exercise
23    of reasonable diligence; and
24        (2) a threat to disseminate may not be brought later
25    than 2 years from the date of the threat to disseminate.

 

 

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1    (b) Except as otherwise provided in subsection (c), this
2Section is subject to the tolling statutes of this State.
3    (c) In an action under subsection (a) of Section 10 by a
4depicted individual who was a minor on the date of the
5dissemination or threat to disseminate, the time specified in
6subsection (a) of this Section does not begin to run until the
7depicted individual attains the age of majority.
 
8    Section 35. Severability. If any provision of this Act or
9its application to any person or circumstance is held invalid,
10the invalidity does not affect other provisions or applications
11of this Act that can be given effect without the invalid
12provision or application, and to this end, the provisions of
13this Act are severable.