MISSISSIPPI LEGISLATURE

1999 Regular Session

To: Judiciary B

By: Representatives Robinson (84th), Cameron, Chaney, Davis, Denny, Eaton, Ellington, Formby, Howell, Hudson, Janus, King, Manning, Martinson, McElwain, Moore, Read, Roberson, Rotenberry, Smith (35th), Smith (39th), Warren, Miles

AN ACT TO AMEND SECTION 97-25-49, MISSISSIPPI CODE OF 1972, TO PROHIBIT THE WRONGFUL ACCESS TO TELECOMMUNICATIONS MESSAGES BY PERSONS OTHER THAN THE INTENDED RECIPIENT OF SUCH MESSAGES; TO PROVIDE FOR THE INADMISSIBILITY OF INFORMATION OBTAINED IN VIOLATION OF THIS SECTION; TO REVISE PENALTIES; TO PROHIBIT PHOTOGRAPHING OR FILMING ANOTHER PERSON WITHOUT PERMISSION WHEN THERE IS AN EXPECTATION OF PRIVACY AND PROVIDE PENALTIES FOR VIOLATIONS; AND FOR RELATED PURPOSES.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF MISSISSIPPI:

SECTION 1. Section 97-25-49, Mississippi Code of 1972, is amended as follows:

97-25-49. (1) A person who commits either of the following offenses shall be punished by a fine of not more than One Thousand Dollars ($1,000.00), or by imprisonment in the county jail not exceeding six (6) months, or both:

(a) Wrongfully obtains, or attempts to obtain, any knowledge of a private telecommunications message by gaining access to the origination, transmission, emission or reception of signs, signals, data, writings, images and sounds or intelligence of any nature by cellular telephone, when such person is not the lawfully intended recipient of the message or is not authorized to have access to such message, or by connivance with a clerk, operator, messenger or other employee of a telecommunications company; or

(b) Being such clerk, operator, messenger or other employee, uses, or suffers to be used, or willfully divulges to anyone but the person for whom it was intended, the contents of a cellular phone message * * *.

(c) The provisions of this subsection shall not apply to the use of a telephone monitoring device by either a law enforcement agency acting pursuant to a valid court order or to a corporation or other business entity engaged in marketing research or telephone solicitation conversations by an employee of the corporation or other business entity when the monitoring is used for the purpose of service quality control and the monitoring is used with the consent of at least one (1) person who is a party to the conversation.

(d) The provisions of this subsection shall not apply to an employee of a cellular telephone company who discloses or uses an intercepted communication in the normal course of business as a necessary incident to providing service or to the protection of the rights or property of the employer or who provides assistance to an investigative or law enforcement officer acting under a valid court order.

(2) Any information obtained in violation of this section shall not be admissible in any civil proceeding unless the information was obtained by the lawful owner of the device that obtained the information.

SECTION 2. Any person who with lewd, licentious or indecent intent secretly photographs, films, videotapes, records or otherwise reproduces the image of another person without the permission of such person when such a person is located in a place where a person would intend to be in a state of undress and have a reasonable expectation of privacy, including, but not limited to, private dwellings or any facility, public or private, used as a restroom, bathroom, shower room, tanning booth, locker room, fitting room, dressing room or bedroom shall be guilty of a felony and upon conviction shall be punished by a fine of Five Thousand Dollars ($5,000.00) or by imprisonment of not more than five (5) years in the custody of the Department of Corrections, or both.

SECTION 3. This act shall take effect and be in force from and after July 1, 1999.