- Consolidated Laws - Civil Rights
ARTICLE 5
Right of Privacy
Section 50. Right of privacy.
50-a. Personnel records of police officers, firefighters and
correction officers.
50-b. Right of privacy; victims of sex offenses or offenses
involving the transmission of the human immunodeficiency
virus.
50-c. Private right of action.
50-d. Personnel records of court officers.
50-e. Personnel records of bridge and tunnel officers, sergeants
and lieutenants.
51. Action for injunction and for damages.
52. Televising, broadcasting or taking motion pictures of
certain proceedings prohibited.
S 50. Right of privacy. A person, firm or corporation that uses for
advertising purposes, or for the purposes of trade, the name, portrait
or picture of any living person without having first obtained the
written consent of such person, or if a minor of his or her parent or
guardian, is guilty of a misdemeanor.
S 50-a. Personnel records of police officers, firefighters and
correction officers. 1. All personnel records, used to evaluate
performance toward continued employment or promotion, under the control
of any police agency or department of the state or any political
subdivision thereof including authorities or agencies maintaining police
forces of individuals defined as police officers in section 1.20 of the
criminal procedure law and such personnel records under the control of a
sheriff`s department or a department of correction of individuals
employed as correction officers and such personnel records under the
control of a paid fire department or force of individuals employed as
firefighters or firefighter/paramedics and such personnel records under
the control of the division of parole for individuals defined as peace
officers pursuant to subdivisions twenty-three and twenty-three-a of
section 2.10 of the criminal procedure law shall be considered
confidential and not subject to inspection or review without the express
written consent of such police officer, firefighter,
firefighter/paramedic, correction officer or peace officer within the
division of parole except as may be mandated by lawful court order.
2. Prior to issuing such court order the judge must review all such
requests and give interested parties the opportunity to be heard. No
such order shall issue without a clear showing of facts sufficient to
warrant the judge to request records for review.
3. If, after such hearing, the judge concludes there is a sufficient
basis he shall sign an order requiring that the personnel records in
question be sealed and sent directly to him. He shall then review the
file and make a determination as to whether the records are relevant and
material in the action before him. Upon such a finding the court shall
make those parts of the record found to be relevant and material
available to the persons so requesting.
4. The provisions of this section shall not apply to any district
attorney or his assistants, the attorney general or his deputies or
assistants, a county attorney or his deputies or assistants, a
corporation counsel or his deputies or assistants, a town attorney or
his deputies or assistants, a village attorney or his deputies or
assistants, a grand jury, or any agency of government which requires the
records described in subdivision one, in the furtherance of their
official functions.
S 50-b. Right of privacy; victims of sex offenses or offenses
involving the transmission of the human immunodeficiency virus. 1. The
identity of any victim of a sex offense, as defined in article one
hundred thirty or section 255.25 of the penal law, or of an offense
involving the alleged transmission of the human immunodeficiency virus,
shall be confidential. No report, paper, picture, photograph, court
file or other documents, in the custody or possession of any public
officer or employee, which identifies such a victim shall be made
available for public inspection. No such public officer or employee
shall disclose any portion of any police report, court file, or other
document, which tends to identify such a victim except as provided in
subdivision two of this section.
2. The provisions of subdivision one of this section shall not be
construed to prohibit disclosure of information to:
a. Any person charged with the commission of an offense, as defined in
subdivision one of this section, against the same victim; the counsel or
guardian of such person; the public officers and employees charged with
the duty of investigating, prosecuting, keeping records relating to the
offense, or any other act when done pursuant to the lawful discharge of
their duties; and any necessary witnesses for either party; or
b. Any person who, upon application to a court having jurisdiction
over the alleged offense, demonstrates to the satisfaction of the court
that good cause exists for disclosure to that person. Such application
shall be made upon notice to the victim or other person legally
responsible for the care of the victim, and the public officer or
employee charged with the duty of prosecuting the offense; or
c. Any person or agency, upon written consent of the victim or other
person legally responsible for the care of the victim, except as may be
otherwise required or provided by the order of a court.
3. The court having jurisdiction over the alleged offense may order
any restrictions upon disclosure authorized in subdivision two of this
section, as it deems necessary and proper to preserve the
confidentiality of the identity of the victim.
4. Nothing contained in this section shall be construed to require the
court to exclude the public from any stage of the criminal proceeding.
5. No disclosure of confidential HIV related information, as defined
in section twenty-seven hundred eighty of the public health law,
including the identity of the victim of an offense involving
transmission of the human immunodeficiency virus, shall be permitted
under this section contrary to article twenty-seven-F of the public
health law.
S 50-c. Private right of action. If the identity of the victim of an
offense defined in subdivision one of section fifty-b of this article is
disclosed in violation of such section, any person injured by such
disclosure may bring an action to recover damages suffered by reason of
such wrongful disclosure. In any action brought under this section, the
court may award reasonable attorney`s fees to a prevailing plaintiff.
S 50-d. Personnel records of court officers. 1. As used in this
section, "personnel records of court officers" means all personnel
records of court officers as defined in paragraph a of subdivision
twenty-one of section 2.10 of the criminal procedure law, used to
evaluate performance toward continued employment or promotion, and under
the control of the office of court administration.
2. Personnel records of court officers shall be disclosed in a court
action pursuant to the relevant provisions of the criminal procedure
law, the civil practice law and rules, or any other provision of law
governing such disclosure only after the court has notified the subject
of such record that such record may be disclosed in a court action and
the court has given the subject of such record an opportunity to be
heard on the question of whether the records sought are relevant and
material in the action before the court. If, after such hearing, the
court determines that only a portion of such records are relevant and
material in the action before it, it shall make those parts of the
record found to be relevant and material available to the persons so
requesting.
3. The provisions of this section shall not apply to any grand jury or
any agency of government which requires the records described in
subdivision one of this section in the furtherance of their official
duties.
S 50-e. Personnel records of bridge and tunnel officers, sergeants and
lieutenants. 1. As used in this section, "personnel records of bridge
and tunnel officers, sergeants and lieutenants" means all personnel
records of bridge and tunnel officers, sergeants and lieutenants as
defined in subdivision twenty of section 2.10 of the criminal procedure
law, used to evaluate performance toward continued employment or
promotion, and under the control of the Triborough bridge and tunnel
authority.
2. Personnel records of bridge and tunnel officers, sergeants and
lieutenants shall be disclosed in a court action pursuant to the
relevant provisions of the criminal procedure law, the civil practice
law and rules, or any other provision of law governing such disclosure
only after the court has notified the subject of such record that such
record may be disclosed in a court action and the court has given the
subject of such record an opportunity to be heard on the question of
whether the records sought are relevant and material in the action
before the court. If, after such hearing, the court determines that only
a portion of such records are relevant and material in the action before
it, it shall make those parts of the record found to be relevant and
material available to the persons so requesting.
3. The provisions of this section shall not apply to any grand jury or
any agency of government which requires the records described in
subdivision one of this section in the furtherance of their official
duties.
S 51. Action for injunction and for damages. Any person whose name,
portrait, picture or voice 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 his name, portrait, picture or voice, 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 or voice 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
transferring any material containing such name, portrait, picture or
voice in whatever medium to any user of such name, portrait, picture 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 corporation, practicing the profession of photography,
from exhibiting in or about his or its 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 or voice of any manufacturer or dealer
in connection with the goods, wares and merchandise manufactured,
produced or dealt in by him which he has sold or disposed of with such
name, portrait, picture or voice used in connection therewith; or from
using the name, portrait, picture or voice of any author, composer or
artist in connection with his literary, musical or artistic productions
which he has sold or disposed of with such name, portrait, picture 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 written 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.
S 52. Televising, broadcasting or taking motion pictures of certain
proceedings prohibited. No person, firm, association or corporation
shall televise, broadcast, take motion pictures or arrange for the
televising, broadcasting, or taking of motion pictures within this state
of proceedings, in which the testimony of witnesses by subpoena or other
compulsory process is or may be taken, conducted by a court, commission,
committee, administrative agency or other tribunal in this state; except
that the prohibition contained in this section shall not apply to public
hearings conducted by the public service commission with regard to rates
charged by utilities, or to proceedings by either house of the state
legislature or committee or joint committee of the legislature or by a
temporary state commission which includes members of the legislature, so
long as any testimony of witnesses which is taken is taken without
resort to subpoena or other compulsory process, if (1) the consent of
the temporary president of the senate or the speaker of the assembly, in
the case of the respective houses of the state legislature, or the
chairman, in the case of such a committee or commission, and a majority
of the members thereof present at such proceedings, shall have been
first obtained, provided, however, that in the case of the public rate
hearings of the public service commission, it shall be sufficient to
obtain the consent of the presiding officer, (2) the written consent of
the witness testifying at the time shall have been obtained, prior to
the time of his testifying, and (3) it has been determined by such
presiding officer or chairman and such majority of the members that it
is in the public interest to permit the televising, broadcasting or
taking of motion pictures.
Any violation of this section shall be a misdemeanor.
