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Law / United States / Montana

Privacy in communications, digitally fabricated intimate images

Mont. Code Ann. 45-8-213

In force.

An AI prohibited practices rule binding public and private bodies.

Obligation class
Prohibition
Audit expectation
none
Setting the rule reaches
General

What it requires

  • Do not publish, distribute, or disclose a real or digitally fabricated intimate image or video of an identifiable person without consent, when done to terrify, intimidate, threaten, harass, or injure the person or to obtain money or other valuable consideration
  • Do not possess and threaten to disclose such an image or video to obtain money or other valuable consideration
  • A first offense is a misdemeanor; a second or subsequent offense is a felony
  • This section does not impose liability on an interactive computer service for content provided by another person

These lines are LexLint's reading of the law's text.

In the frameworks

NIST AI RMF
  • MAP 3.3Targeted application scope is specified and documented based on the system’s capability, established context, and AI system categorization.
NIST AI 600-1
MIT mitigations Draft
  • 1.5Safety Decision Frameworks
  • 3.3Access Management
NIST Privacy Framework
  • CT.PO-P1Policies, processes, and procedures for authorizing data processing (e.g., organizational decisions, individual consent), revoking authorizations, and maintaining authorizations are established and in place.
FINOS AIGF
ETSI EN 304 223
  • 5.1.2-1Business need and security risks written down and assessed before deciding to build an AI system.
  • 5.1.4-5End-users told which uses of the system are prohibited.

Our reading of where this law's duties sit in each framework. It never says that running a control meets the law. How we read a framework against the law

Identifiers refer to ETSI EN 304 223 V2.1.1 (2025-12), © ETSI 2025, all rights reserved. ETSI owns the standard; no ETSI text (titles or sentences) is reproduced here. The standard is free to download from ETSI.

If you get it wrong

Criminal exposureYes

Private right of actionNo

Criminal exposure note

A first offense is a misdemeanor punishable by a fine up to $500 or up to 6 months in county jail, or both. A second or subsequent offense is a felony punishable by imprisonment up to 5 years or a fine up to $25,000, or both.

Penalty structure

First offense under subsection (1)(d) or (1)(e): misdemeanor, fine up to $500 or up to 6 months in county jail, or both. Second or subsequent offense: felony, imprisonment up to 5 years or a fine up to $25,000, or both.

Rule
Fixed only
As of
Currency
USD
Fixed cap
25,000

What it makes you log

Logging duty

Section 45-8-213 defines a digitally fabricated image and states the elements of the offense of publishing, distributing, disclosing, or threatening to disclose one without consent. It imposes no duty on anyone to log, record, or otherwise document anything.

Kind
None
As of

What this law does

Drafted with AI

Drafted with AI from the cited sources under the direction of UnGovr staff. UnGovr holds editorial responsibility for this page. How this site is made

Research summary

Legal information, not legal advice. This is LexLint's own research summary of a public legal source, and it creates no attorney-client relationship. For decisions that matter, consult qualified counsel in the relevant jurisdiction. About LexLint

A 2025 amendment (HB 514) added digitally fabricated images to the privacy in communications statute's existing ban on nonconsensual intimate images: a person may not publish, distribute, or disclose a real or digitally fabricated image or video of an identifiable person showing genitals or an exposed female breast, or the person depicted engaged in a real or simulated sexual act, without that person's consent, with the purpose to terrify, intimidate, threaten, harass, or injure the person or to obtain money or other valuable consideration; nor may a person possess and threaten to disclose such an image or video with the purpose to obtain money or other valuable consideration from the person depicted.

'Digitally fabricated' means using a technical means, such as artificial intelligence, to create media that realistically misrepresents an identifiable individual as engaging in conduct in which the individual did not engage. A first offense under these provisions is a misdemeanor punishable by a fine up to $500 or up to 6 months in county jail, or both; a second or subsequent offense is a felony punishable by up to 5 years imprisonment or a fine up to $25,000, or both.

The section does not impose liability on an interactive computer service for content another person provided. House Bill 514 (Chapter 686, Laws of Montana 2025) carries no effective-date clause of its own, so it takes effect under Montana's general rule, Mont. Code Ann. 1-2-201, on the first day of October following its passage and approval.

When LexLint raises it

When your app profile says your app generates images with AI, generates video with AI or publishes adult content.

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