According to a 1999 Nevada law, Nev. St. 205.4742:
"Encryption" means the use of any protective or disruptive measure, including, without limitation, cryptography, enciphering, encoding or a computer contaminant, to... prevent, impede, delay or disrupt access to any data, information,
image, program, signal or sound.
Thus in the state of Nevada smashing your computer is deemed a valid form of encryption.
Excerpt from the Connecticut General Statutes (53a-251 - "Computer Crime"):
(a) Defined. A person commits computer crime when he violates any of the provisions of this section.
(b) Unauthorized access to computer system.
(c) Theft of computer services.
(d) Interruption of computer services.
(e) Misuse of computer system information.
(f) Destruction of computer equipment.
Provision (f) claims that destroying your computer is a violation of this law and constitutes computer crime!
Section 1. Section 3933 of Title 18 of the Pennsylvania Consolidated Statutes is amended to read:
Definitions - "Computer." An electronic, magnetic, optical, hydraulic, organic or other high speed data processing device or system which performs logic, arithmetic or memory functions and includes all input, output, processing, storage, software or communication facilities which are connected or related to the device in a system or network.
We don't recommend you torture yourself just because you happen to be in or pass through Pennsylvania.
The New Hanover County Superior Court jury took more than two hours to find Joshua Mortimer guilty for typing the message "The end is near" on a computer screen at Hoggard High School. Judge Allen Cobb Jr. gave Mortimer a 45-day suspended sentence with 18 months of probation and 48 hours of community service work. Mortimer faced no active jail time with the conviction. He spent three nights in jail under high bond upon his arrest. Mortimer already had been expelled from school for one year after the message was discovered.
State law defines communicating threats as willfully threatening personal injury or property damage under circumstances that would cause a reasonable person to believe the threat will be carried out.
Threatening your computer constitutes a crime.
