Full Text of SB1507 101st General Assembly
SB1507enr 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 publication or | 16 | | distribution to another person with intent to disclose. | 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, voyeurism, or exceeding authorized access to an | 13 | | account, message, file, device, resource, or property. | 14 | | (11) "Person" means an individual, business or nonprofit | 15 | | entity, public corporation, government or governmental | 16 | | subdivision, 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, | 11 | | digital 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 | 20 | | depicted individual is identifiable to a reasonable person and | 21 | | suffers harm from the intentional dissemination or threatened | 22 | | dissemination by a person over the age of 18 of a private | 23 | | sexual image without the depicted individual's consent, the | 24 | | depicted individual has a cause of action against the person if | 25 | | the 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 | 6 | | establish by itself that the individual consented to the | 7 | | nonconsensual dissemination of a private sexual image that is | 8 | | the subject of an action under this Act or that the individual | 9 | | lacked 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 | 13 | | liability on an interactive computer service, as defined in 47 | 14 | | U.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 | 17 | | proves that the dissemination of or a threat to disseminate a | 18 | | private 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, | 4 | | legal guardian, or individual with legal custody of a child is | 5 | | not liable under this Act for a dissemination or threatened | 6 | | dissemination of an intimate private sexual image of the child. | 7 | | (c) If a defendant asserts an exception to liability under | 8 | | subsection (b), the exception does not apply if the plaintiff | 9 | | proves 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 | 15 | | private sexual image is not a matter of public concern solely | 16 | | because 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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| 1 | | applies shall file with the court and serve on the defendant a | 2 | | confidential information form that includes the excluded or | 3 | | redacted plaintiff's name and other identifying | 4 | | characteristics. | 5 | | (c) The court may make further orders as necessary to | 6 | | protect the identity and privacy of a plaintiff. | 7 | | (d) If a plaintiff is granted privacy protections under | 8 | | this Section, a defendant may file a motion with the court to | 9 | | receive the same privacy protections. The court may deny or | 10 | | grant the motion at its discretion. | 11 | | Section 25. Remedies. | 12 | | (a) In an action under this Act, a prevailing plaintiff may | 13 | | recover: | 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 | 13 | | prevailing 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 | 17 | | under 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 | 2 | | Section is subject to the tolling statutes of this State. | 3 | | (c) In an action under subsection (a) of Section 10 by a | 4 | | depicted individual who was a minor on the date of the | 5 | | dissemination or threat to disseminate, the time specified in | 6 | | subsection (a) of this Section does not begin to run until the | 7 | | depicted individual attains the age of majority.
| 8 | | Section 35. Severability. If any provision of this Act or | 9 | | its application to any person or circumstance is held invalid, | 10 | | the invalidity does not affect other provisions or applications | 11 | | of this Act that can be given effect without the invalid | 12 | | provision or application, and to this end, the provisions of | 13 | | this Act are severable.
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