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Law / United States / Maine

Unauthorized dissemination of certain private images (AI-generated image amendment)

17-A M.R.S. § 511-A

A citation is an address, not a summary. The first part names the law; what follows narrows it to the exact section, article or paragraph.

In force.

An AI prohibited practices rule binding public and private bodies.

As of 6 September 2026.

What it requires

  • Do not intentionally or knowingly disseminate, display, or publish an image of an identifiable person in a state of nudity or engaged in a sexual act or sexual contact without that person's consent, with intent to harass, torment, or threaten; this reaches an image that has been AI-created or AI-modified to appear to show the person in that state, not only an authentic photograph.
  • A violation is a Class D crime, carrying imprisonment of less than one year and a fine of up to $2,000.

If you get it wrong

Criminal exposureYes

Criminal exposure note

Unauthorized dissemination of certain private images under 17-A M.R.S. § 511-A is a Class D crime, punishable by imprisonment of less than one year (17-A M.R.S. § 1604(1)(D)) and a fine of up to $2,000 (17-A M.R.S. § 1704(4)).

Penalty structure

Maximum fine for a Class D crime under 17-A M.R.S. § 1704(4); the statute also authorizes imprisonment of less than one year under § 1604(1)(D), tracked in criminal_exposure_note rather than as a monetary figure.

Rule
Fixed only
As of
6 September 2026
Currency
USD
Fixed cap
2,000

What it reaches

Obligation class

Prohibition

What this law does

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

A person is guilty of unauthorized dissemination of certain private images, a Class D crime, if, with intent to harass, torment, or threaten, the person intentionally or knowingly disseminates, displays, or publishes an image of another person in a state of nudity or engaged in a sexual act or sexual contact, or an image that has been created or modified so that it appears to show the depicted person in such a state, knowing the depicted person is identifiable and has not consented.

A 2025 amendment (P.L. 2025, ch. 400) added the created-or-modified-image language and a matching definition of image that reaches a computer data file or other electronically or mechanically reproduced visual image, bringing an AI-generated or AI-manipulated sexual deepfake within the existing non-consensual-intimate-image crime rather than creating a separate offense.

The same chapter also touched Maine's protection-from-abuse and protection-from-harassment statutes (19-A M.R.S. § 4102; 5 M.R.S. § 4651), per the enacting bill's own list of affected sections; those companion provisions are not separately researched here. The Legislature's own bill-status page records enactment and the Governor's signature on June 20, 2025, not June 25 as a secondary tracker reports.

When LexLint raises it

  • generates_content
  • publishes_adult_content

Read the law

official text, Maine Revised Statutes (legislature.maine.gov)

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