Federal Laws in general

In general

Computer related crimes have been federal offenses since 1984 when Congress passed the Counterfeit Access Device and Computer Fraud and Abuse Law of 1984.FN49 Rather than having to "bootstrap" enforcement efforts against computer crime by relying on statutory restrictions designed for other conduct, the Computer Fraud and Abuse provision attempts to set forth in single statute computer-related offenses.FN50 Section 1030(a)(1) prohibits unauthorized access of a computer to obtain information relating to national defense or foreign relations.

In 1996, the scienter element of Section 1030(a)(1) was changed to track the scienter requirement of the statute that prohibits the gathering, transmitting or losing defense information.[FN51] "Although there is considerable overlap between the two statutes, they do not reach exactly the same conduct. Section 1030(a)(1) targets those persons who deliberately break into a computer to obtain property classified as government secrets then try to peddle those secrets to others, including foreign governments.FN52

Cumulative Supplement

Cases:

Commerce Clause authority for federal legislation: Statute prohibiting the coercion of a minor to engage in sexually explicit conduct for the purpose of producing visual depictions of such conduct using materials that have been transported in interstate and foreign commerce did not violate the Commerce Clause as applied to defendant's local production of pornographic images of a child; such intrastate production in the aggregate could substantially affect interstate commerce, so that the prohibition of such production on a local level was rational means of regulating the interstate commerce of that product. U.S.C.A. Const. Art. 1, § 8, cl. 3; 18 U.S.C.A. § 2251(a). U.S. v. Jeronimo-Bautista, 425 F.3d 1266 (10th Cir. 2005); West's Key Number Digest, Infants 12(8).