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Engrossed Version Senate Bill 740 History

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Key: Green = existing Code. Red = new code to be enacted
ENGROSSED

COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE

FOR

Senate Bill No. 740

(By Senator Green)

____________

[Originating in the Committee on the Judiciary;

reported March 27, 2009.]

____________


A BILL to amend and reenact §61-3C-14a of the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, relating to obscene, anonymous, harassing and threatening communications by the internet; publishing false statements via the internet designed to injure the reputation of another; and setting penalties therefore.

Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That §61-3C-14a of the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, be amended and reenacted to read as follows:
ARTICLE 3C. WEST VIRGINIA COMPUTER CRIME AND ABUSE ACT.
§61-3C-14a. Obscene, anonymous, harassing and threatening communications by computer; penalty.

(a) It is unlawful for any person, with the intent to harass or abuse another person, to use a computer to:
(1) Make contact via the internet with another without disclosing his or her identity with the intent to harass or abuse;
(2) Make contact via the internet with a person after being requested by the person to desist from contacting them;
(3) Threaten via the internet to commit a crime against any person or property; or
(4) Cause obscene material to be delivered or transmitted via the internet to a specific person after being requested to desist from sending such material.
(5) Willfully publish via the internet a webpage or posting on a newsgroup untrue statements about another person which are false and designed to entice or encourage other people to ridicule or perpetuate the untruth about that person.
For purposes of this section, "obscene material" means material that:
(A) An average person, applying contemporary adult community standards, would find, taken as a whole, appeals to the prurient interest, is intended to appeal to the prurient interest, or is pandered to a prurient interest;
(B) An average person, applying contemporary adult community standards, would find, depicts or describes, in a patently offensive way, sexually explicit conduct consisting of an ultimate sexual act, normal or perverted, actual or simulated, an excretory function, masturbation, lewd exhibition of the genitals or sadomasochistic sexual abuse; and
(C) A reasonable person would find, taken as a whole, lacks literary, artistic, political or scientific value.
(b) It is unlawful for any person to knowingly permit a computer under his or her control to be used for any purpose prohibited by this section.
(c) Any offense committed under this section may be determined to have occurred at the place at which the contact originated or the place at which the contact was received or intended to be received.
(d) Any person who violates a provision of this section is guilty of a misdemeanor and, upon conviction thereof, shall be fined not more than $500 or confined in a county or regional jail not more than six months, or both. For a second or subsequent offense, the person is guilty of a misdemeanor and, upon conviction thereof, shall be fined not more than $1,000 or confined in a county or regional jail for not more than one year, or both.



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