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