A comparative study of computer theft and its punishment in the Iranian and French legal systems

If cyberspace is used as an environment for committing a crime, its constituent elements are the same elements of ordinary theft with their own characteristics. In this crime, the offender makes computer instructions, information, and data the primary target of the crime. There must be a connection between the material act and the perpetrator's mental state in order for the perpetrator to be found guilty. This article seeks to answer the main question that despite the common elements between the crime of theft in cyberspace and the physical environment and the lack of substantive difference between the two types of theft, whether the penalties imposed on natural or legal persons who commit Are they stealing cyber theft, is it commensurate with their attributed crime?

The present research is applied in terms of purpose and descriptive-analytical in terms of method and the method of collecting information is from library-documentary studies.

The research findings indicate that there are many differences and similarities between the regulations of the two countries. In the French penal system, theft in cyberspace include "fraudulent entry into the system" and "unauthorized stay in the system." The first offense involves tangible illegal intrusion into all or part of the system, such as a program or multiple data, and the second offense is unauthorized staying in the system in chronological order after "unauthorized entry".