[comp.society] Electronic Fraud - or is it?

jack@cs.glasgow.ac.uk (Jack Campin) (07/29/87)

I thought this might be of interest. I got it from the Guardian last week.

The High Court in London has thrown out the convictions of Stephen Gold and
Robert Schifreen for "forging" the password to Prince Philip's Telecom Gold
electronic mailbox. They had been convicted under the English Forgery and
Counterfeiting Act of 1981.

The appeal judge said "On any view, if it was forgery at all it was a very
unusual form of it" - he ordered British Telecom (who instigated the case) to
pay the costs of the prosecution. (as I understand English law - I'm writing
from Scotland where criminal law is very different - this is an EXTREMELY
severe step and means that the judge would have dearly loved to bang up the
managing director of BT for wasting his time but couldn't see a legal way to
do it).

Background: Gold and Schifreen weren't trying to defraud Phil the Greek, just
demonstrating the lack of security of Telecom Gold. BT prosecuted them in an
attempt to set a precedent.

This appears to mean there is now nothing in English law to stop you cracking
an insecure network per se, if it's "just looking". Makes it like the law of
trespass - it's not a crime to be on someone's land unless you're intending to
commit burglary, arson, etc.

Any English lawyers out there like to comment?

jack