Senate Bill No. 153
(By Senator Sprouse)
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[Introduced January 20, 2000; referred to the Committee
on the Judiciary.]
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A BILL to amend and reenact section seven, article three-c, chapter
sixty-one of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine
hundred thirty-one, as amended, relating to clarifying that
introducing computer viruses into a computer, computer system
or computer network is a crime and subject to criminal
penalties.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That section seven, article three-c, chapter sixty-one of the
code of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as
amended, be amended and reenacted to read as follows:
ARTICLE 3C. WEST VIRGINIA COMPUTER CRIME AND ABUSE ACT.
§61-3C-7. Alteration, destruction, etc., of computer equipment.
(a) Any No person who may knowingly, willfully and without
authorization, directly or indirectly, tampers tamper with,
deletes, alters, damages or destroys or attempts delete, alter,
damage or destroy, or attempt to tamper with, delete, alter, damage
or destroy any computer, computer network, computer software,
computer resources, computer program or computer data. shall be
(b) It is a violation of subsection (a) of this section for a
person to knowingly introduce, directly or indirectly, a computer
contaminant into any computer, computer system or computer network.
(c) For purposes of this section, a "computer contaminant"
means any set of computer instructions that are designed to modify,
damage, destroy, record or transmit information within a computer,
computer system or computer network without the intent or
permission of the owner of the information. They include, but are
not limited to, a group of computer instructions commonly called
viruses or worms, that are self-replicating or self-propagating and
are designed to contaminate other computer programs or computer
data, consume computer resources, modify, destroy, record or
transmit data, or in some other fashion usurp the normal operation
of the computer, computer system or computer network.
(d) A person who violates subsection (a) of this section is guilty of a felony and, upon conviction thereof, shall be fined not
more than ten thousand dollars or confined in the penitentiary a
state correctional facility not more than ten years, or both, or,
in the discretion of the court, be fined not less than two hundred
nor more than one thousand dollars and confined in the county or
regional jail not more than one year.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to clarify that introducing
computer viruses into a computer, computer system or computer
network is a crime.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken from
the present law, and underscoring indicates new language that would
be added.