AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 11 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO COMPUTER RELATED OFFENSES.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF DELAWARE:
Section 1. Amend Title 11 of the Delaware Code by renumbering the existing Sections 937 through 939 as Sections 939 through 941, and inserting as new § 937 Unrequested or unauthorized Electronic Mail" and § 938 Failure to promptly cease electronic communication upon request as follows:
"§ 937. Unrequested or Unauthorized Electronic Mail.
A person is guilty of the computer crime of unrequested or unauthorized electronic mail when that person, without authorization, intentionally or recklessly distribute any commercial electronic mail (commercial e-mail) to any receiving address or account under the control of any authorized user of a computer system. This section shall not apply to electronic mail that is sent between individuals, or when the individual has requested said information.
§ 938. Failure to promptly cease electronic communication upon request.
A person is guilty of the computer crime of failure to promptly cease electronic communication upon request when that person intentionally or negligently fails to stop sending commercial electronic mail to any receiving address or account under the control of any authorized user of a computer system after being requested to do so. All commercial electronic mail sent to any receiving address within the state shall have information to the recipient on how to unsubscribe or stop further receipt of commercial electronic mail from the sender."
Section 2. Amend the renumbered Sections 939, 940 and 941 of Title 11 of the Delaware Code by deleting the numbers "932-936" where they appear in the sections and replacing thereto with "932-938".
Section 3. amend § 931 of Title 11 of the Delaware Code by inserting the word "data" in subsection 11 the following:
"(12) ‘Electronic mail’ or ‘e-mail’ means any message that is automatically passed from an originating address or account to a receiving address or account;
(13) ‘Originating address’ or ‘originating account’ means the string used to specify the source of any electronic mail message (e.g.
(14) "Receiving address’ or ‘receiving account’ means the string used to specify the destination of any electronic mail message (e.g.
person@receiver.com);(15) ‘Internet service provider’ or ‘ISP’ means any person or entity that provides other persons, entities or individuals with access to, or presence on, the Internet.
(16) The ‘Internet’ is a hierarchy of computer networks and systems that includes, but is not limited to, commercial (.com or .co), university (.ac or .edu) and other research networks (.org, .net) and military (.mil) networks and spans many different physical networks and systems around the world.
(17) ‘Commercial Electronic Mail’ or ‘ Commercial E-mail’ means any electronic mail message that is sent to a receiving address or account for the purposes of advertising, promoting, marketing or otherwise attempting to solicit interest in any good service or enterprise.
This act creates the computer crimes of unrequested or unauthroized electronic mail and failure to respond to a request to stop electronic mail by making it a misdemeanor under Delaware Law to SPAM and to staop seneing commercial e-mail when requested.