Law / United States / 
Rhode Island
Rhode Island Computer Crime chapter, unauthorized access and computer trespass
R.I. Gen. Laws §§ 11-52-1, 11-52-2, 11-52-3, 11-52-4.1, 11-52-5, 11-52-6
In force.
A computer misuse rule binding public and private bodies.
- Obligation class
- Access restriction
- Audit expectation
- none
What it requires
- Do not access a Rhode Island-connected computer, system, or network without the owner's permission, or beyond the scope of permission actually granted; this chapter's without-authority standard reaches exceeding permission as well as having none.NIST AI RMFMAP 4.1
- Do not use a computer or network without authority and with intent to disable, alter, or erase data or programs, or to cause a malfunction, even where no fraudulent purpose is involved.no control in the NIST AI RMF
- A person injured by a violation of this chapter may sue for compensatory and punitive damages plus attorney's fees; this private right of action is broader than the federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA)'s civil-suit route.
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.
- NIST AI 600-1
- GAI-RISK-09Information Security
- GAI-RISK-12Value Chain and Component Integration
- OWASP LLM Top 10
- LLM03:2026Excessive Agency
- OWASP Agentic Top 10
- ASI03Identity and Privilege Abuse
- MIT mitigations Draft
- FINOS AIGF
- AIR-PREV-018Agent Authority Least Privilege Framework
- AIR-PREV-023Agentic System Credential Protection Framework
- ETSI EN 304 223
- 5.1.2-6Access the AI system gets to other systems and data sources is minimal and risk assessed.
Our reading of where this law's duties sit in each framework, and in the NIST AI RMF, line by line beside each duty above. It never says that running a control meets the law. How we read a framework against the law
Identifiers refer to ETSI EN 304 223 V2.1.1 (2025-12), © ETSI 2025, all rights reserved. ETSI owns the standard; no ETSI text (titles or sentences) is reproduced here. The standard is free to download from ETSI.
If you get it wrong
Criminal exposureYes
Private right of actionYes
Criminal exposure note
A felony under section 11-52-2, 11-52-3 or 11-52-4.1 carries a fine of not more than $5,000, imprisonment of not more than five years, or both; a misdemeanor under the chapter carries a fine of not more than $500, imprisonment of not more than one year, or both; the lesser tier of section 11-52-4.1 (value of $500 or less) carries imprisonment of not more than one year, a fine of not more than $1,000, or both.
Penalty structure
Two tiers under section 11-52-5: a felony conviction under the chapter carries a fine of not more than $5,000 and imprisonment of not more than five years, or both; a misdemeanor conviction under the chapter carries a fine of not more than $500 and imprisonment of not more than one year, or both. Section 11-52-4.1's own text sets a separate misdemeanor tier for computer trespass where the property value is $500 or less: imprisonment of not more than one year and a fine of not more than $1,000, a different fine amount from the chapter's general misdemeanor tier.
- Rule
- Fixed only
- As of
- Currency
- USD
- Fixed cap
- 5,000
Statutory damages
Only for injury from unsolicited bulk electronic mail: an injured person other than an electronic mail service provider may elect, in lieu of actual damages, the lesser of $500 for each message up to a maximum of $25,000 per day, and an injured electronic mail service provider the greater of $500 for each message up to a maximum of $25,000 per day. Both are stated as ceilings or provider elections, so no per-person field is set; section 11-52-6(a) states no sum for any other injury.
- As of
- Currency
- USD
Who enforces it
Enforcement body
The chapter names no enforcing agency: offences are criminal (felony or misdemeanor under section 11-52-5) and an injured person may sue under section 11-52-6.
Settledness
- As of
- Open questions
- Does "in a manner exceeding his or her right or permission" in section 11-52-1(15)(v)(A) reach a person who retrieves publicly posted pages in a way the site operator's terms of use forbid?
What it makes you log
Logging duty
Sections 11-52-1 to 11-52-6 define terms, make fraudulent access (11-52-2), intentional unauthorized access, alteration or damage (11-52-3) and computer trespass (11-52-4.1) offences, set penalties (11-52-5) and give a civil action (11-52-6). None requires a log or record. The definition of acting without authority mentions an e-mail system offered by a Rhode Island based Internet service provider, which turns on whose system is used and not on where the actor is, so it gives no hook.
- Kind
- None
- As of
What this law does
Section 11-52-1(15)(v) defines a person as "without authority" when he or she has no right or permission of the owner to use a computer, or uses a computer in a manner exceeding his or her right or permission, a broad without-permission-or-exceeding-permission standard rather than the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA)'s narrower gates-based test.
Section 11-52-3 makes it a felony to intentionally and without authorization access, alter, damage, or destroy a computer, system, network, program, or data for a fraudulent or other illegal purpose. Section 11-52-4.1 separately criminalizes using a computer or network without authority and with intent to disable data or programs, cause a malfunction, alter or erase data, forge bulk-email headers, or similar disruptive acts, regardless of a fraudulent purpose.
Felony violations of the chapter carry a fine of not more than five thousand dollars and imprisonment of not more than five years, or both. The lesser tier under section 11-52-4.1 (property value of five hundred dollars or less) is a misdemeanor punishable by not more than one year and a one-thousand-dollar fine, a different fine amount from the chapter's general misdemeanor tier of five hundred dollars.
Section 11-52-6 gives any person injured by a violation of the chapter a private civil right of action for compensatory damages, punitive damages, court costs, and reasonable attorney's fees, broader than the federal CFAA's civil-suit route, which is conditioned on specific categories of loss. The sections this entry groups came into force on different days.
When LexLint raises it
When your app profile says your app crawls the web.
Back to the example · Lint your app
Page updated .