II

104TH CONGRESS

1ST SESSION S. 974

To prohibit certain acts involving the use of computers in the furtherance

of crimes, and for other purposes.

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

JUNE 27 (legislative day, JUNE 19), 1995

Mr. GRASSLEY introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred

to the Committee on the Judiciary

A BILL

To prohibit certain acts involving the use of computers in

the furtherance of crimes, and for other purposes.

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Anti-Electronic Rack5 eteering Act of 1995’’.

6 SEC. 2. PROHIBITED ACTIVITIES.

7 (a) DEFINITIONS.—Section 1961(1) of title 18,

8 United States Code, is amended—
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1 (1) by striking ‘‘1343 (relating to wire fraud)’’

2 and inserting ‘‘1343 (relating to wire and computer

3 fraud)’’;

4 (2) by striking ‘‘that title’’ and inserting ‘‘this

5 title’’;

6 (3) by striking ‘‘or (E)’’ and inserting ‘‘(E)’’;

7 and

8 (4) by inserting before the semicolon the follow9 ing: ‘‘or (F) any act that is indictable under section

10 1030, 1030A, or 1962(d)(2)’’.

11 (b) USE OF COMPUTER TO FACILITATE RACKETEER12 ING ENTERPRISE.—Section 1962 of title 18, United

13 States Code, is amended—

14 (1) by redesignating subsection (d) as sub15 section (e); and

16 (2) by inserting after subsection (c) the follow17 ing new subsection:

18 ‘‘(d) It shall be unlawful for any person—

19 ‘‘(1) to use any computer or computer network

20 in furtherance of a racketeering activity (as defined

21 in section 1961(1)); or

22 ‘‘(2) to damage or threaten to damage elec23 tronically or digitally stored data.’’.

24 (c) CRIMINAL PENALTIES.—Section 1963(b) of title

25 18, United States Code, is amended—
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1 (1) by striking ‘‘and’’ at the end of paragraph

2 (1);

3 (2) by striking the period at the end of para4 graph (2) and inserting ‘‘; and’’; and

5 (3) by adding at the end the following new

6 paragraph:

7 ‘‘(3) electronically or digitally stored data.’’.

8 (d) CIVIL REMEDIES.—Section 1964(c) of title 18,

9 United States Code, is amended by striking ‘‘his property

10 or business’’.

11 (e) USE AS EVIDENCE OF INTERCEPTED WIRE OR

12 ORAL COMMUNICATIONS.—Section 2515 of title 18,

13 United States Code, is amended by inserting before the

14 period at the end the following: ‘‘, unless the authority

15 in possession of the intercepted communication attempted

16 in good faith to comply with this chapter. If the United

17 States or any State of the United States, or subdivision

18 thereof, possesses a communication intercepted by a non19 governmental actor, without the knowledge of the United

20 States, that State, or that subdivision, the communication

21 may be introduced into evidence’’.

22 (f) AUTHORIZATION FOR INTERCEPTION OF WIRE,

23 ORAL, OR ELECTRONIC COMMUNICATIONS.—Section

24 2516(1) of title 18, United States Code, is amended—
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1 (1) by striking ‘‘and’’ at the end of paragraph

2 (n);

3 (2) by striking the period at the end of para4 graph (o) and inserting ‘‘; and’’; and

5 (3) by adding at the end the following new

6 paragraph:

7 ‘‘(p) any violation of section 1962 of title 18.’’.

8 (g) PROCEDURES FOR INTERCEPTION.—Section

9 2518(4)(b) of title 18, United States Code, is amended

10 by inserting before the semicolon the following: ‘‘to the

11 extent feasible’’.

12 (h) COMPUTER CRIMES.—

13 (1) NEW PROHIBITED ACTIVITIES.—Chapter 47

14 of title 18, United States Code, is amended by add15 ing at the end the following new section:

16 ‘‘§ 1030A. Racketeering-related crimes involving com17 puters

18 ‘‘(a) It shall be unlawful—

19 ‘‘(1) to use a computer or computer network to

20 transfer unlicensed computer software, regardless of

21 whether the transfer is performed for economic con22 sideration;

23 ‘‘(2) to distribute computer software that en24 codes or encrypts electronic or digital communica25 tions to computer networks that the person distrib-
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1 uting the software knows or reasonably should know,

2 is accessible to foreign nationals and foreign

3 governments, regardless of whether such software

4 has been designated as nonexportable;

5 ‘‘(3) to use a computer or computer network to

6 transmit a communication intended to conceal or

7 hide the origin of money or other assets, tangible or

8 intangible, that were derived from racketeering ac9 tivity; and

10 ‘‘(4) to operate a computer or computer net11 work primarily to facilitate racketeering activity or

12 primarily to engage in conduct prohibited by Federal

13 or State law.

14 ‘‘(b) For purposes of this section, each act of distrib15 uting software is considered a separate predicate act. Each

16 instance in which nonexportable software is accessed by

17 a foreign government, an agent of a foreign government,

18 a foreign national, or an agent of a foreign national, shall

19 be considered as a separate predicate act.

20 ‘‘(c) It shall be an affirmative defense to prosecution

21 under this section that the software at issue used a univer22 sal decoding device or program that was provided to the

23 Department of Justice prior to the distribution.’’.

24 (2) CLERICAL AMENDMENT.—The analysis at

25 the beginning of chapter 47, United States Code, is
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1 amended by adding at the end the following new

2 item:

‘‘1030A. Racketeering-related crimes involving computers.’’.

3 (3) JURISDICTION AND VENUE.—Section 1030

4 of title 18, United States Code, is amended by add5 ing at the end the following new subsection:

6 ‘‘(g)(1)(A) Any act prohibited by this section that is

7 committed using any computer, computer facility, or com8 puter network that is physically located within the terri9 torial jurisdiction of the United States shall be deemed

10 to have been committed within the territorial jurisdiction

11 of the United States.

12 ‘‘(B) Any action taken in furtherance of an act de13 scribed in subparagraph (A) shall be deemed to have been

14 committed in the territorial jurisdiction of the United

15 States.

16 ‘‘(2) In any prosecution under this section involving

17 acts deemed to be committed within the territorial juris18 diction of the United States under this subsection, venue

19 shall be proper where the computer, computer facility, or

20 computer network was physically situated at the time at

21 least one of the wrongful acts was committed.’’.

22 (i) WIRE AND COMPUTER FRAUD.—Section 1343 of

23 title 18, United States Code, is amended by striking ‘‘or

24 television communication’’ and inserting ‘‘television com25 munication, or computer network or facility’’.
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1 (j) PRIVACY PROTECTION ACT.—Section 101 of the

2 Privacy Protection Act of 1980 (42 U.S.C. 2000aa) is

3 amended—

4 (1) in subsection (a)—

5 (A) by striking ‘‘or’’ at the end of para6 graph (1);

7 (B) by striking the period at the end of

8 paragraph (2) and inserting ‘‘; or’’; and

9 (C) by adding at the end the following new

10 paragraph:

11 ‘‘(3) there is reason to believe that the imme12 diate seizure of such materials is necessary to pre13 vent the destruction or altercation of such docu14 ments.’’; and

15 (2) in subsection (b)—

16 (A) by striking ‘‘or’’ at the end of para17 graph (3);

18 (B) by striking the period at the end of

19 paragraph (4) and inserting ‘‘; or’’; and

20 (C) by adding at the end the following new

21 paragraph:

22 ‘‘(5) in the case of electronically stored data,

23 the seizure is incidental to an otherwise valid sei24 zure, and the government officer or employee—
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1 ‘‘(A) was not aware that work product ma2 terial was among the data seized;

3 ‘‘(B) upon actual discovery of the existence

4 of work product materials, the government offi5 cer or employee took reasonable steps to protect

6 the privacy interests recognized by this section,

7 including—

8 ‘‘(i) using utility software to seek and

9 identify electronically stored data that may

10 be commingled or combined with non-work

11 product material; and

12 ‘‘(ii) upon actual identification of such

13 material, taking reasonable steps to protect

14 the privacy of the material, including seek15 ing a search warrant.’’.

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