THE SENATE                           S.R. NO.              66
TWENTIETH LEGISLATURE, 1999                                
STATE OF HAWAII                                            
                                                             
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                    SENATE  RESOLUTION
  REQUESTING THE LEGISLATIVE REFERENCE BUREAU TO CONVENE A
    WORKING GROUP TO STUDY POTENTIAL LEGISLATION ON COMPUTER
    CRIMES.



 1        WHEREAS, the advent of the information age has
 2   dramatically changed the way in which the world communicates
 3   and how business is transacted, as evidenced by an IntelliQuest
 4   Company survey that reports over 79,000,000 adults online as of
 5   March 1999, or thirty-eight per cent of the American population
 6   sixteen years and older; and
 7   
 8        WHEREAS, criminal activity conducted on personal
 9   computers, such as computer harassment, cyber-stalking,
10   computer trespass, invasion of privacy, theft of computer
11   services, embezzlement, and forgery have proliferated as the
12   use of personal computers has increased; and
13   
14        WHEREAS, other computer-related activities like the
15   sending of unsolicited bulk email, or spamming, which states
16   are now considering prohibiting, have caused recipients of such
17   email to suffer inconvenience and harassment and incur
18   unnecessary costs through increased communications storage
19   charges, and loss of communication service time due to system
20   interruptions and network shutdowns due to overloads of these
21   unsolicited electronic advertisements; and
22   
23        WHEREAS, the inexpensiveness, immediacy, and anonymity of
24   personal computer communications, coupled with the exponential
25   and explosive growth of the internet and its availability to
26   over thirty-nine per cent of the nation's households make it an
27   attractive instrument for those who would abuse these features
28   to commit crimes or to harass others; and
29   
30        WHEREAS, the Legislature finds that current state laws do
31   not provide adequate protections or remedies to the online
32   community to prevent and discourage unlawful activities
33   conducted on personal computers; now, therefore,
34   
35        BE IT RESOLVED by the Senate of the Twentieth Legislature
36   of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 1999, that the
37   Legislative Reference Bureau is requested to convene a working
38   group to study possible legislation on unlawful activities on
39   personal computers, including computer harassment, cyber-
40   stalking, computer trespass, invasion of privacy, theft of

 
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                                  S.R. NO.              66
                                                        
                                                        


 1   computer services, embezzlement, forgery, unsolicited
 2   commercial email, and similar or related problems which are
 3   conducted with the use of personal computers; and
 4   
 5        BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Legislative Reference
 6   Bureau is requested to include in the working group
 7   representatives of the Department of the Attorney General,
 8   Office of Consumer Protection, Public Defender's Office, the
 9   Prosecutor's Office of one or more of the counties, victims of
10   computer crimes, internet service providers, and web-hosting
11   companies, with the chair of the working group selected by its
12   members; and
13   
14        BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that any representative from these
15   organizations shall be deemed to speak on behalf of the
16   organization, and if an organization does not participate, it
17   shall be deemed to support the working group report unless it
18   formally refuses to participate; and
19   
20        BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Legislative Reference
21   Bureau is requested to report the findings and recommendations
22   of the working group to the Legislature not later than twenty
23   days prior to the convening of the Regular Session of 2000; and
24   
25        BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that certified copies of this
26   Resolution be transmitted to the Acting Director of the
27   Legislative Reference Bureau, the Attorney General, the
28   Executive Director of the Office of Consumer Protection, the
29   Public Defender, and the Prosecuting Attorney of each county.
30 
31 
32 
33                           OFFERED BY: ___________________________