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N.Y. GBS Law § 673

This is the official text of N.Y. GBS Law § 673, part of New York’s GBS Law — part of the compiled statutory law of New York, published by the state as "GBS Law." Browse the sections below, each linked to its official government source.

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Wrongful disclosure of video tape rental records

Official statutory text

§ 673. Wrongful disclosure of video tape rental records. 1. A video\ntape service provider who knowingly discloses, to any person, personally\nidentifiable information concerning any consumer of such provider shall\nbe liable to the aggrieved person for the relief provided in section six\nhundred seventy-five of this article.\n 2. A video tape service provider shall disclose personally\nidentifiable information concerning any consumer:\n (a) to a grand jury pursuant to a grand jury subpoena;\n (b) pursuant to a court order, in a civil proceeding upon a showing of\ncompelling need for the information that cannot be accommodated by any\nother means, or in a criminal proceeding upon a showing of legitimate\nneed for the information that cannot be accommodated by any other means,\nif:\n (i) the consumer is given reasonable notice, by the person seeking the\ndisclosure, of the court proceeding relevant to the issuance of the\ncourt order;\n (ii) the consumer is afforded the opportunity to appear and contest\nthe claim of the person seeking the disclosure; and\n (iii) the court imposes appropriate safeguards against unauthorized\ndisclosure;\n (c) to a law enforcement agency pursuant to a warrant lawfully\nobtained under the laws of this state or the United States; or\n (d) to a court pursuant to a civil action for conversion commenced by\nthe video tape service provider or to enforce collection of fines for\noverdue or unreturned video tapes, and then only to the extent necessary\nto establish the fact of the rental. Notwithstanding the foregoing, a\ncourt shall impose appropriate safeguards against unauthorized\ndisclosure.\n 3. A video tape service provider may disclose personally identifiable\ninformation concerning any consumer:\n (a) to the consumer;\n (b) to any person with the informed, written consent of the consumer;\nor\n (c) to any person if the disclosure is incident to the ordinary course\nof business of the video tape service provider.\n 4. Personally identifiable information obtained in any manner other\nthan as provided in this section shall not be received in evidence in\nany trial, hearing, arbitration, or other proceeding in or before any\ncourt, grand jury, department, officer, agency, regulatory body,\nlegislative committee or other authority of the state or any political\nsubdivision thereof.\n 5. A person subject to this section shall destroy personally\nidentifiable information as soon as practicable, but no later than one\nyear from the date the information is no longer necessary for the\npurpose for which it was collected and there are no pending requests or\norders for access to such information under this article.\n

Status: in_force · Read it on the official government site

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About this page: Statute text is reproduced from official government publishers via the Open US Law dataset (Vaquill AI, snapshot v2026.08, CC BY 4.0). Primary legislative text like this is public domain under the government-edicts doctrine (Georgia v. Public.Resource.Org, 2020). We link every section back to its official source so you can verify it independently.