A 378: Establishes a cause of action against any person who gives publicity to a matter concerning the private life of a person where the matter publicized is of a kind that would be highly offensive to a reasonable person and is not of legitimate concern to the public.

  
  STATE OF NEW YORK ________________________________________________________________________ 378 2025-2026 Regular Sessions  IN ASSEMBLY (Prefiled) January 8, 2025 ___________ Introduced by M. of A. VANEL -- read once and referred to the Committee on Governmental Operations AN ACT to amend the civil rights law, in relation to establishing a cause of action for publicity given to private life The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem- bly, do enact as follows: 1 Section 1. The civil rights law is amended by adding a new section 2 50-h to read as follows: 3 § 50-h. Publicity given to private life. 1. A person shall have a 4 cause of action against any person who gives publicity to a matter 5 concerning the private life of such principal person where the matter 6 publicized is of a kind that would be highly offensive to a reasonable 7 person and is not of legitimate concern to the public. 8 2. In any action commenced pursuant to subdivision one of this 9 section, the finder of fact, in its discretion, may award injunctive 10 relief, punitive damages, compensatory damages and reasonable court 11 costs and attorney's fees. 12 3. For purposes of this section, "publicity" shall mean that the 13 matter is made public, by communicating it to the public at large, or to 14 so many persons that the matter must be regarded as substantially 15 certain to become one of public knowledge. The term "publicity" shall 16 also mean that the matter is shared to a specific group of persons who 17 have a special relationship to the individual whose matter was publi- 18 cized. 19 § 2. This act shall take effect immediately. EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets [ ] is old law to be omitted. LBD01923-01-5