Law / United States / 
Massachusetts
Obtaining computer services by fraud or misrepresentation; penalties
Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 266, § 33A
In force.
A computer misuse rule binding public and private bodies.
- Audit expectation
- none
What it requires
- Do not obtain, or attempt to obtain, a subscription-based or otherwise paid commercial computer service by false representation, false statement, unauthorized account charging, equipment tampering, or any other fraudulent means.
- This section is scoped to a service its proprietor offers to others for monetary consideration, so it does not by itself reach an openly published, unpaid page.
These lines are LexLint's reading of the law's text.
If you get it wrong
Criminal exposureYes
Criminal exposure note
Punishable by imprisonment in the house of correction for not more than two and one-half years, a fine of not more than $3,000, or both.
Penalty structure
Fixed criminal fine cap; the section separately authorizes up to two and one-half years' imprisonment in the house of correction, alone or together with the fine.
- Rule
- Fixed only
- As of
- Currency
- USD
- Fixed cap
- 3,000
What it makes you log
Logging duty
Section 33A makes it an offence to obtain, or attempt to obtain, a commercial computer service with intent to defraud, and defines a commercial computer service as computer use offered to others on a subscription or other basis for monetary consideration. It imposes no duty to create, keep, produce or review a log or record and states no territorial clause, so no hook is recorded.
- Kind
- None
- As of
What this law does
Whoever, with intent to defraud, obtains or attempts to obtain a commercial computer service by false representation, false statement, unauthorized charging to another's account, tampering with equipment, or any other means, is punished by up to two and one-half years in the house of correction, a fine of up to $3,000, or both.
"Commercial computer service" is defined as the use of, or access to or copying of data from, a computer, system, program, or network that its proprietor offers to others on a subscription or other paid basis, so the section reaches circumventing a paywall or subscription gate rather than accessing an openly published page. Section 33A was inserted by chapter 168 of the Acts of 1994. Chapter 168 was approved , and carries no effective-date clause or emergency preamble of its own.
Article XLVIII of the Amendments to the Massachusetts Constitution bars such a law from taking effect earlier than ninety days after it becomes law, and no source states the day it took effect.
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