| 1 | 1 | | By: Castro, Gallego (Senate Sponsor - Watson) H.B. No. 1666 |
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| 2 | 2 | | (In the Senate - Received from the House April 27, 2011; |
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| 3 | 3 | | April 28, 2011, read first time and referred to Committee on |
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| 4 | 4 | | Criminal Justice; May 12, 2011, reported favorably by the |
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| 5 | 5 | | following vote: Yeas 7, Nays 0; May 12, 2011, sent to printer.) |
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| 6 | 6 | | |
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| 7 | 7 | | |
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| 8 | 8 | | A BILL TO BE ENTITLED |
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| 9 | 9 | | AN ACT |
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| 10 | 10 | | relating to the prosecution of the offense of online impersonation. |
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| 11 | 11 | | BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS: |
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| 12 | 12 | | SECTION 1. The heading to Section 33.07, Penal Code, is |
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| 13 | 13 | | amended to read as follows: |
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| 14 | 14 | | Sec. 33.07. ONLINE IMPERSONATION [HARASSMENT]. |
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| 15 | 15 | | SECTION 2. Section 33.07(a), Penal Code, is amended to read |
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| 16 | 16 | | as follows: |
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| 17 | 17 | | (a) A person commits an offense if the person, without |
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| 18 | 18 | | obtaining the other person's consent and with the intent to harm, |
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| 19 | 19 | | defraud, intimidate, or threaten any person, uses the name or |
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| 20 | 20 | | persona of another person to: |
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| 21 | 21 | | (1) create a web page on a commercial social |
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| 22 | 22 | | networking site or other Internet website; or |
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| 23 | 23 | | (2) [to] post or send one or more messages on or |
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| 24 | 24 | | through a commercial social networking site or other Internet |
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| 25 | 25 | | website, other than on or through an electronic mail program or |
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| 26 | 26 | | message board program [: |
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| 27 | 27 | | [(1) without obtaining the other person's consent; and |
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| 28 | 28 | | [(2) with the intent to harm, defraud, intimidate, or |
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| 29 | 29 | | threaten any person]. |
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| 30 | 30 | | SECTION 3. The change in law made by this Act applies only |
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| 31 | 31 | | to an offense committed on or after the effective date of this Act. |
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| 32 | 32 | | An offense committed before the effective date of this Act is |
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| 33 | 33 | | governed by the law in effect on the date the offense was committed, |
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| 34 | 34 | | and the former law is continued in effect for that purpose. For |
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| 35 | 35 | | purposes of this section, an offense was committed before the |
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| 36 | 36 | | effective date of this Act if any element of the offense occurred |
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| 37 | 37 | | before that date. |
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| 38 | 38 | | SECTION 4. This Act takes effect September 1, 2011. |
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| 39 | 39 | | * * * * * |
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