Assembly Bill A3924

                             
                     S T A T E   O F   N E W   Y O R K
 ________________________________________________________________________
 
                                   3924
 
                        2025-2026 Regular Sessions
 
                           I N  A S S E M B L Y
 
                             January 30, 2025
                                ___________
 
 Introduced  by M. of A. BORES -- read once and referred to the Committee
   on Judiciary
 
 AN ACT to amend the civil rights law,  in  relation  to  privacy  rights
   involving digitization
 
   THE  PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK, REPRESENTED IN SENATE AND ASSEM-
 BLY, DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:

   Section 1. This act shall be known and may be cited as the  "right  to
 your own image act".
   §  2.  Section  50 of the civil rights law, as amended by section 1 of
 subpart A of part MM of chapter 58 of the laws of 2024,  is  amended  to
 read as follows:
   §  50.  Right  of privacy. A person, firm or corporation that uses for
 advertising purposes, or for the purposes of trade, the name,  portrait,
 picture,  likeness,  or  voice  of  any living person, INCLUDING BUT NOT
 LIMITED TO A PORTRAIT, PICTURE, LIKENESS, OR VOICE CREATED OR ALTERED BY
 DIGITIZATION, without having first obtained the written consent of  such
 person, or if a minor of such minor's parent or guardian, is guilty of a
 misdemeanor.  FOR PURPOSES OF THIS SECTION, "DIGITIZATION" MEANS THE USE
 OF  SOFTWARE,  MACHINE  LEARNING,  ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE, OR ANY OTHER
 COMPUTER-GENERATED OR TECHNOLOGICAL MEANS,  INCLUDING ADAPTING,  MODIFY-
 ING, MANIPULATING, OR ALTERING A REALISTIC DEPICTION.
   §  3.   Section 51 of the civil rights law, as amended by section 2 of
 subpart A of part MM of chapter 58 of the laws of 2024,  is  amended  to
 read as follows:
   §  51.  Action  for injunction and for damages. Any person whose name,
 portrait, picture, likeness or voice, INCLUDING BUT  NOT  LIMITED  TO  A
 PORTRAIT,  PICTURE,  LIKENESS,  OR VOICE CREATED OR ALTERED BY DIGITIZA-
 TION, is used within this state for  advertising  purposes  or  for  the
 purposes  of  trade  without the written consent first obtained as above
 provided may maintain an equitable action in the supreme court  of  this
 state  against  the  person,  firm or corporation so using such person's
 
  EXPLANATION--Matter in ITALICS (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
                       [ ] is old law to be omitted.
                                                            LBD02148-01-5
              

 A. 3924                             2
 
 name, portrait, picture, likeness or voice, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO
 A PORTRAIT, PICTURE, LIKENESS, OR VOICE CREATED OR ALTERED BY  DIGITIZA-
 TION,  to  prevent  and  restrain  the use thereof; and may also sue and
 recover  damages for any injuries sustained by reason of such use and if
 the defendant shall have knowingly used such  person's  name,  portrait,
 picture,  likeness  or  voice,  INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO A PORTRAIT,
 PICTURE, LIKENESS, OR VOICE CREATED OR ALTERED BY DIGITIZATION, in  such
 manner  as  is  forbidden or declared to be unlawful by section fifty of
 this article, the jury, in its discretion, may award exemplary  damages.
 But  nothing  contained  in  this  article  shall  be so construed as to
 prevent any person, firm or corporation from selling or otherwise trans-
 ferring any material containing such name, portrait,  picture,  likeness
 or voice, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO A PORTRAIT, PICTURE, LIKENESS, OR
 VOICE CREATED OR ALTERED BY DIGITIZATION, in whatever medium to any user
 of  such  name,  portrait,  picture,  likeness or voice, or to any third
 party for sale or transfer directly or indirectly to such  a  user,  for
 use  in  a  manner  lawful under this article; nothing contained in this
 article shall be so construed as to prevent any person, firm  or  corpo-
 ration,  practicing the profession of photography, from exhibiting in or
 about their establishment specimens of the work of  such  establishment,
 unless  the  same is continued by such person, firm or corporation after
 written notice objecting thereto has been given by the person portrayed;
 and nothing contained in this  article  shall  be  so  construed  as  to
 prevent  any  person, firm or corporation from using the name, portrait,
 picture, likeness or voice, INCLUDING BUT NOT  LIMITED  TO  A  PORTRAIT,
 PICTURE,  LIKENESS,  OR VOICE CREATED OR ALTERED BY DIGITIZATION, of any
 manufacturer or dealer in connection with the goods, wares and  merchan-
 dise  manufactured,  produced or dealt in by such manufacturer or dealer
 which they have sold or disposed of with such name,  portrait,  picture,
 likeness  or voice used in connection therewith; or from using the name,
 portrait, picture, likeness or voice of any author, composer  or  artist
 in connection with their literary, musical or artistic productions which
 they  have  sold or disposed of with such name, portrait, picture, like-
 ness or voice used in connection therewith. Nothing  contained  in  this
 section  shall  be  construed to prohibit the copyright owner of a sound
 recording from disposing of, dealing in, licensing or selling that sound
 recording to any party, if the right to dispose of, deal in, license  or
 sell  such sound recording has been conferred by contract or other writ-
 ten document by such living person or the holder of such right.  Nothing
 contained  in  the  foregoing  sentence  shall  be deemed to abrogate or
 otherwise limit any rights or remedies otherwise  conferred  by  federal
 law  or  state law.   FOR PURPOSES OF THIS SECTION, "DIGITIZATION" MEANS
 THE USE OF SOFTWARE, MACHINE LEARNING, ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE,  OR  ANY
 OTHER  COMPUTER-GENERATED  OR TECHNOLOGICAL MEANS,   INCLUDING ADAPTING,
 MODIFYING, MANIPULATING, OR ALTERING A REALISTIC DEPICTION.
   § 4.  This act shall take effect immediately.