Civil law: personal rights: online sex trafficking: sexual photographs.

Existing law grants a cause of action to a depicted individual, as defined, against a person who either (1) creates and intentionally discloses sexually explicit material if the person knows or reasonably should have known the depicted individual did not consent to its creation or disclosure or (2) intentionally discloses sexually explicit material that the person did not create if the person knows the depicted individual did not consent to its creation. Existing law also specifies that a victim of human trafficking may bring a civil action for actual damages, compensatory damages, punitive damages, injunctive relief, any combination of those, or any other appropriate relief. This bill would allow a person to bring a civil action for actual damages, compensatory damages, punitive damages, injunctive relief, specified statutory damages, and any other appropriate relief, against any person or entity that makes, obtains, or distributes, including through electronic distribution, actionable material, subject to specified exceptions. The bill would make this prohibition applicable to any person or entity that, with notice of claimed infringement, uploads or reuploads actionable material, or that in any manner publishes or republishes actionable material. This bill would define actionable material as any moving or still photograph in any technological form, regardless of whether it has been altered, of a person or their identifiable likeness, in which they are naked or that is sexual in nature, and that meets specified requirements. This bill would authorize, in addition to any other damages awarded to a prevailing plaintiff, statutory damages of $100,000 to be assessed and paid by the defendant for failing to remove, and cease distribution of, the material within 2 business days after notice of claimed infringement of these provisions was received by the defendant. If the plaintiff was under 18 years of age when the actionable material was created, the bill would provide that the additional statutory damages awarded would instead be $200,000 for failing to remove, and cease distribution of, the material within 2 business days after notice of claimed infringement of these provisions was received by the defendant. This bill would require a person or entity that operates an online service or internet website, including electronic distribution, that is available in California to list, in a location available to the public via the service or on the internet website, an agent for notification of claimed violation of these provisions, and would make failure to do so an actionable violation of these provisions. This bill, in addition to the private right of action, would require the Attorney General to enforce these provisions against repeated violators, including, among other actions, by levying fines commensurate with the statutory damages described above payable to the person in the actionable material. This bill would state that its provisions are severable.