Minnesota was a little late to the party, but we became the 33rd state in the nation to criminalize what’s commonly referred to as “revenge porn.” Since our law went into effect in August of 2016, five other states have added revenge porn laws to the books, and it seems likely the other 12 will get on board sooner rather than later. But what exactly is revenge porn, and how is it penalized in Minnesota? We explain in this blog.
Minnesota’s Revenge Porn Law
Minnesota’s revenge porn law is actually on the books as the Nonconsensual Dissemination of Private Sexual Images law. As the law states, it is illegal for anyone to intentionally disseminate a private sexual image of another person. Additionally, the law does not require the person disseminating the photo to actually know that the other person did not consent to the dissemination. As long as the person sharing the photo could reasonably believe that the subject of the photo would not want the photo shared, they can be charged under the revenge porn law. This means that if you receive a lewd photo from a friend who got it from a friend, and you share it with others, you could be charged under the Nonconsensual Dissemination of Private Sexual Images law. But content that is shared between legally consenting adults from websites is legal and celebrated in a variety of circles.
Under the law, a first time offense for violating Minnesota’s Nonconsensual Dissemination of Private Sexual Images law is punishable by up to one year in jail and fines up to $1,000.
Aggravating Circumstances and Upgraded Charges
If any of the following factors are present, the standard revenge porn charge may be upgraded to felony-level.
- The subject of the image suffered a financial loss due to the dissemination of the photo.
- The person shared the image with an intent to profit off of its dissemination.
- The sharer maintained a website for the purpose of disseminating the image or similar types of images.
- The sharer posted the image on a website.
- The photo was disseminated with an intent to harass the subject.
- The image or images were obtained through computer hacking.
- The sharer has a previous conviction of this offense.
If a person is found guilty of a felony-level revenge porn crime in Minnesota, they can be punished by up to three years in prison.
Challenging a revenge porn charge in court is a little trickier than other cases, because the law doesn’t require the sharer to act with intent to harm. In most criminal cases, there must exist and act and an intention (or negligence) in order for a conviction to take place (For example, accidentally elbowing somebody wouldn’t be considered assault, because there was no intent to injure). However, Minnesota’s revenge porn law criminalizes the sharing of sexual images, regardless of the sharer’s intent.
The next law to be challenged is the distribution of revenge porn videos, this will work similar to the recently amended revenge porn image law however the difference being that in this instance the law will be referring to a porn video, so if a video is uploaded to an adult video website or one of the many millions of other porn websites as an act of revenge without the approval from any parties shown in the video then the party uploading the video will be subject to prosecution.
If you have been charged under Minnesota’s revenge porn law, don’t just plead guilty and hope the judge goes easy on you. There are plenty of ways to challenge a revenge porn charge, and we’d be happy to walk you through all of your options. For more information, contact Appelman Law Firm today.
