For decades the practice of using nude and intimate images to extort money from someone has been a crime charged as larceny by extortion and unlawful surveillance. However since the advent of the internet another similar and just as reprehensible and potentially personally devastating practice has appeared: revenge porn. A person who is bitter/unhappy about being dumped/divorced posts intimate photos and videos they have of their ex not to extort money but just simply to hurt and embarrass them. For a time this was a gray area legally, as the person depicted consented to the images being taken at the time, and there wasn't any specific law that stated those images couldn't be sent to others. But the law eventually caught up and many states now have what are known as revenge porn laws. In 2019 New York became the 41st state to pass such legislature: § 245.15 "Unlawful dissemination or publication of an intimate image" was added to the New York state penal code, which made publishing/sharing an intimate image or video for the purpose of "causing harm to the emotional, financial or physical
welfare of another person" a crime when "the actor knew or reasonably should have known that the person
depicted did not consent to such dissemination or publication". Unlawful dissemination or publication of an intimate image is a class A misdemeanor and carries a fine of up to $1,000 and a sentence of up to one year in jail followed by up to three years probation.
