Session Laws

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:

SECTION 1. Chapter 233 of the General Laws is hereby amended by inserting after section 79J the following section:-

Section 79K. A duplicate of a computer data file or program file shall be admissible in evidence as the original itself unless (1) a genuine question is raised as to the authenticity of the original or (2) in the circumstances it would be unfair to admit the duplicate in lieu of the original.

For the purposes of this section, if data is stored in a computer or similar device, any printout or other output readable by sight, shown to reflect the data accurately, shall be an original.

A "duplicate of a computer data file or program file" shall mean a file produced by the same impression as the original, or from the same matrix, or by mechanical or electronic recording, in the normal way such a duplicate is produced on a computer, or by other equivalent techniques that accurately reproduce the original.

SECTION 2. Chapter 266 of the General Laws is hereby amended by inserting after section 33 the following section:-

Section 33A. Whoever, with intent to defraud, obtains, or attempts to obtain, or aids or abets another in obtaining, any commercial computer service by false representation, false statement, unauthorized charging to the account of another, by installing or tampering with any facilities or equipment or by any other means, shall be punished by imprisonment in the house of correction for not more than two and one-half years or by a fine of not more than three thousand dollars, or both. As used in this section, the words "commercial computer service" shall mean the use of computers, computer systems, computer programs or computer networks, or the access to or copying of the data, where such use, access or copying is offered by the proprietor or operator of the computer, system, program, network or data to others on a subscription or other basis for monetary consideration.

SECTION 3. Said chapter 266 is hereby further amended by inserting after section 120E, inserted by chapter 218 of the acts of 1993, the following section:-

Section 120F. Whoever, without authorization, knowingly accesses a computer system by any means, or after gaining access to a computer system by any means knows that such access is not authorized and fails to terminate such access, shall be punished by imprisonment in the house of correction for not more than thirty days or by a fine of not more than one thousand dollars, or both.

The requirement of a password or other authentication to gain access shall constitute notice that access is limited to authorized users.

SECTION 4. Section 127 of said chapter 266, as appearing in the 1992 Official Edition, is hereby amended by adding the following sentence:- The words "personal property", as used in this section, shall also include electronically processed or stored data, either tangible or intangible, and data while in transit.

SECTION 5. Chapter 277 of the General Laws is hereby amended by inserting after section 58A the following section:-

Section 58A>. The crimes described in sections thirty-three A and one hundred and twenty F of chapter two hundred and sixty-six and section one hundred and twenty-seven of said chapter two hundred and sixty-six when the personal property involved is electronically processed or stored data, either tangible or intangible, and data while in transit, may be prosecuted and punished in any county where the defendant was physically located at the time of the violation, or where the electronic data was physically located at the time of the violation.