Cyber Stalking Laws- Texas

Texas
AN ACT
relating to the creation of the offense of online harassment.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. Chapter 33, Penal Code, is amended by adding
Section 33.07 to read as follows:
SEC. 33.07. ONLINE HARASSMENT. (a) A person commits an offense if the person uses the name or persona of another person to create a web page on or to post one or more messages on a commercial social networking site:
(1) without obtaining the other person's consent; and
(2) with the intent to harm, defraud, intimidate, or threaten any person.
(b) A person commits an offense if the person sends an electronic mail, instant message, text message, or similar communication that references a name, domain address, phone number, or other item of identifying information belonging to any person:
(1) without obtaining the other person's consent;
(2) with the intent to cause a recipient of the communication to reasonably believe that the other person authorized or transmitted the communication; and
(3) with the intent to harm or defraud any person.
(c) An offense under Subsection (a) is a felony of the third degree. An offense under Subsection (b) is a Class A misdemeanor, except that the offense is a felony of the third degree if the actor commits the offense with the intent to solicit a response by emergency personnel.
(d) If conduct that constitutes an offense under this section also constitutes an offense under any other law, the actor may be prosecuted under this section, the other law, or both.
(e) It is a defense to prosecution under this section that the actor is any of the following entities or that the actor's conduct consisted solely of action taken as an employee of any of the following entities:
(1) a commercial social networking site;
(2) an Internet service provider;
(3) an interactive computer service, as defined by 47 U.S.C. Section 230;
(4) a telecommunications provider, as defined by Section 51.002, Utilities Code; or
(f) In this section:
(1) "Commercial social networking site" means any business, organization, or other similar entity operating a website that permits persons to become registered users for the purpose of establishing personal relationships with other users through direct or real-time communication with other users or the creation of web pages or profiles available to the public or to other users. The term does not include an electronic mail program or a message board program.
(2) "Identifying information" has the meaning assigned by Section 32.51.
SECTION 2. This Act takes effect September 1, 2009.

Sec. 42.07. HARASSMENT. (a) A person commits an offense if, with intent to harass, annoy, alarm, abuse, torment, or embarrass another, he:

(1) initiates communication by telephone, in writing, or by electronic communication and in the course of the communication makes a comment, request, suggestion, or proposal that is obscene;

(2) threatens, by telephone, in writing, or by electronic communication, in a manner reasonably likely to alarm the person receiving the threat, to inflict bodily injury on the person or to commit a felony against the person, a member of his family or household, or his property;

(3) conveys, in a manner reasonably likely to alarm the person receiving the report, a false report, which is known by the conveyor to be false, that another person has suffered death or serious bodily injury;

(4) causes the telephone of another to ring repeatedly or makes repeated telephone communications anonymously or in a manner reasonably likely to harass, annoy, alarm, abuse, torment, embarrass, or offend another;

(5) makes a telephone call and intentionally fails to hang up or disengage the connection;

(6) knowingly permits a telephone under the person's control to be used by another to commit an offense under this section; or

(7) sends repeated electronic communications in a manner reasonably likely to harass, annoy, alarm, abuse, torment, embarrass, or offend another.

(b) In this section:

(1) "Electronic communication" means a transfer of signs, signals, writing, images, sounds, data, or intelligence of any nature transmitted in whole or in part by a wire, radio, electromagnetic, photoelectronic, or photo-optical system. The term includes:

(A) a communication initiated by electronic mail, instant message, network call, or facsimile machine; and

(B) a communication made to a pager.

(2) "Family" and "household" have the meaning assigned by Chapter 71, Family Code.

(3) "Obscene" means containing a patently offensive description of or a solicitation to commit an ultimate sex act, including sexual intercourse, masturbation, cunnilingus, fellatio, or anilingus, or a description of an excretory function.

(c) An offense under this section is a Class B misdemeanor, except that the offense is a Class A misdemeanor if the actor has previously been convicted under this section.

Acts 1973, 63rd Leg., p. 883, ch. 399, Sec. 1, eff. Jan. 1, 1974. Amended by Acts 1983, 68th Leg., p. 2204, ch. 411, Sec. 1, eff. Sept. 1, 1983; Acts 1993, 73rd Leg., ch. 10, Sec. 1, eff. March 19, 1993; Acts 1993, 73rd Leg., ch. 900, Sec. 1.01, eff. Sept. 1, 1994; Acts 1995, 74th Leg., ch. 657, Sec. 1, eff. June 14, 1995; Acts 1999, 76th Leg., ch. 62, Sec. 15.02(d), eff. Sept. 1, 1999; Acts 2001, 77th Leg., ch. 1222, Sec. 1, eff. Sept. 1, 2001.

Cyberstalking Laws- New York §240.30

New York
§240.30 Aggravated harassment in the second degree.
A person is guilty of aggravated harassment in the second degree when, with intent to harass, annoy, threaten or alarm another person, he or she:
1. Either
(a) communicates with a person, anonymously or otherwise, by telephone, by telegraph, or by mail, or by transmitting or delivering any other form of written communication, in a manner likely to cause annoyance or alarm; or
(b) causes a communication to be initiated by mechanical or electronic means or otherwise with a person, anonymously or otherwise, by telephone, by telegraph, or by mail, or by transmitting or delivering any other form of written communication, in a manner likely to cause annoyance or alarm; or
2. Makes a telephone call, whether or not a conversation ensues, with no purpose of legitimate communication; or
3. Strikes, shoves, kicks, or otherwise subjects another person to physical contact, or attempts or threatens to do the same because of a belief or perception regarding such person's race, color, national origin, ancestry, gender, religion, religious practice, age, disability or sexual orientation, regardless of whether the belief or perception is correct; or
4. Commits the crime of harassment in the first degree and has previously been convicted of the crime of harassment in the first degree as defined by section 240.25 of this article within the preceding ten years.
5. For the purposes of subdivision one of this section, "form of written communication" shall include, but not be limited to, a recording as defined in subdivision six of section 275.00 of this part.
Aggravated harassment in the second degree is a class A misdemeanor.

Cyberstalking Laws - California Cal. Civil Code § 1708.7

PENAL CODE
SECTION 422-422.4
422. Any person who willfully threatens to commit a crime which
will result in death or great bodily injury to another person, with
the specific intent that the statement, made verbally, in writing, or
by means of an electronic communication device, is to be taken as a
threat, even if there is no intent of actually carrying it out,
which, on its face and under the circumstances in which it is made,
is so unequivocal, unconditional, immediate, and specific as to
convey to the person threatened, a gravity of purpose and an
immediate prospect of execution of the threat, and thereby causes
that person reasonably to be in sustained fear for his or her own
safety or for his or her immediate family's safety, shall be punished
by imprisonment in the county jail not to exceed one year, or by
imprisonment in the state prison.
For the purposes of this section, "immediate family" means any
spouse, whether by marriage or not, parent, child, any person related
by consanguinity or affinity within the second degree, or any other
person who regularly resides in the household, or who, within the
prior six months, regularly resided in the household.
"Electronic communication device" includes, but is not limited to,
telephones, cellular telephones, computers, video recorders, fax
machines, or pagers. "Electronic communication" has the same meaning
as the term defined in Subsection 12 of Section 2510 of Title 18 of
the United States Code.



422.1. Every person who is convicted of a felony violation of
Section 148.1 or 11418.1, under circumstances in which the defendant
knew the underlying report was false, in addition to being ordered to
comply with all other applicable restitution requirements and fine
and fee provisions, shall also be ordered to pay full restitution to
each of the following:
(a) Any person, corporation, business trust, estate, trust,
partnership, association, joint venture, government, governmental
subdivision, agency or instrumentality, or any other legal or
commercial entity for any personnel, equipment, material, or clean up
costs, and for any property damage, caused by the violation
directly, or stemming from any emergency response to the violation or
its aftermath.
(b) Any public or private entity incurring any costs for actual
emergency response, for all costs of that response and for any clean
up costs, including any overtime paid to uninvolved personnel made
necessary by the allocation of resources to the emergency response
and clean up.
(c) Restitution for the costs of response by a government entity
under this section shall be determined in a hearing separate from the
determination of guilt. The court shall order restitution in an
amount no greater than the reasonable costs of the response. The
burden shall be on the people to prove the reasonable costs of the
response.
(d) In determining the restitution for the costs of response by a
government entity, the court shall consider the amount of restitution
to be paid to the direct victim, as defined in subdivision (k) of
Section 1202.4.



422.4. (a) Any person who publishes information describing or
depicting an academic researcher or his or her immediate family
member, or the location or locations where an academic researcher or
an immediate family member of an academic researcher may be found,
with the intent that another person imminently use the information to
commit a crime involving violence or a threat of violence against an
academic researcher or his or her immediate family member, and the
information is likely to produce the imminent commission of such a
crime, is guilty of a misdemeanor, punishable by imprisonment in a
county jail for not more than one year, a fine of not more than one
thousand dollars ($1,000), or by both a fine and imprisonment.
(b) For the purposes of this section, all of the following apply:
(1) "Publishes" means making the information available to another
person through any medium, including, but not limited to, the
Internet, the World Wide Web, or e-mail.
(2) "Academic researcher" has the same meaning as in Section
602.12.
(3) "Immediate family" means any spouse, whether by marriage or
not, domestic partner, parent, child, any person related by
consanguinity or affinity within the second degree, or any other
person who regularly resides in the household, or who, within the
prior six months, regularly resided in the household.
(4) "Information" includes, but is not limited to, an image,
film, filmstrip, photograph, negative, slide, photocopy, videotape,
video laser disc, or any other computer-generated image.
(c) Any academic researcher about whom information is published in
violation of subdivision (a) may seek a preliminary injunction
enjoining any further publication of that information. This
subdivision shall not apply to a person or entity protected pursuant
to Section 1070 of the Evidence Code.
(d) This section shall not apply to any person who is lawfully
engaged in labor union activities that are protected under state or
federal law.
(e) This section shall not preclude prosecution under any other
provision of law.