Law / United States / 
New Hampshire
New Hampshire Computer Crime Statute
In force since .
A computer misuse rule binding public and private bodies.
- How the hook was established
- express
- What makes it apply
- User location
- Audit expectation
- none
What it requires
- Do not knowingly access, or cause to be accessed, a computer or computer network you know you are not authorized to access.
- Do not knowingly make an unauthorized display, use, disclosure, or copy of data obtained through such access, even after collection; this can reach how you later use or share data taken beyond the scope of any authorization.
- Access to an unauthenticated public page is ordinarily treated as authorized by implied consent; New Hampshire has no case law establishing what notice, if any, revokes that implied consent for automated collection.
- A violation is graded by the dollar value of the property or computer services affected, from a misdemeanor up to a class A felony, with a possible fine of double your gain from the offense in place of the statutory cap.
These lines are LexLint's reading of the law's text.
In the frameworks
- NIST AI RMF
- MAP 4.1Approaches for mapping AI technology and legal risks of its components – including the use of third-party data or software – are in place, followed, and documented, as are risks of infringement of a third party’s intellectual property or other rights.
Our reading of where this law's duties sit in each framework. It never says that running a control meets the law. How we read a framework against the law
If you get it wrong
Criminal exposureYes
Private right of actionNo
Criminal exposure note
RSA 638:18 grades computer crime from a misdemeanor (value $1,000 or less) to a class B felony (value $1,000 to $1,500, or specified repeat conduct) to a class A felony (value over $1,500, or a prior conviction), and lets the court substitute a fine of up to double the defendant's gain from the offense. New Hampshire's general felony fine cap under RSA 651:2, IV(a) is $4,000 for an individual and $100,000 for a corporation or unincorporated association.
Penalty structure
Individual felony fine cap under the general schedule, RSA 651:2, IV(a); a corporation or unincorporated association is capped at $100,000. RSA 638:18, IV separately lets the court substitute a fine of up to double the defendant's gain from the offense, and a misdemeanor-grade violation (value $1,000 or less) carries the lower general misdemeanor caps instead of this felony figure.
- Rule
- Fixed only
- As of
- Currency
- USD
- Fixed cap
- 4,000
What it makes you log
Logging duty
RSA 638:16 to 638:19 define the computer crime offenses, their penalties and venue. None of the sections requires a person to create, keep, produce or review a log or record. RSA 638:19, III deems an offense to have occurred in the state if an act in furtherance of it occurs in the state, which is a test of where the actor's conduct takes place; its further limb, that a computer system accessed is located in the state, turns on where the system sits and carries no hook value.
- Kind
- None
- As of
What this law does
RSA 638:17, I makes it the computer crime of unauthorized access when a person, knowing they are not authorized, knowingly accesses or causes to be accessed a computer or computer network; affirmative defenses excuse a reasonable good-faith belief that the owner had authorized access, would have authorized it without payment, or that the access could not reasonably have been known to be unauthorized.
RSA 638:17, IV separately makes it misuse of computer information to knowingly make an unauthorized display, use, disclosure, or copy of data obtained through such access, which can reach downstream use of data taken beyond the scope of any authorization, not only the initial access itself.
RSA 638:16, II defines authorization as the express or implied consent of the computer's owner, so ordinary access to an unauthenticated public page is authorized unless and until that consent is withdrawn; no New Hampshire case addresses whether or how notice revokes implied authorization for automated collection specifically.
RSA 638:18 grades the offense by the dollar value of the property or computer services affected, from a misdemeanor at $1,000 or less up to a class A felony above $1,500 or on a repeat offense, and lets a court substitute a fine of double the defendant's gain from the offense; New Hampshire's general felony fine cap under RSA 651:2 applies where the offense does not itself state one.
When LexLint raises it
When your app profile says your app crawls the web or trains models.
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