Ed­mund Chris­to

The Com­put­er Mis­use Act, Chap­ter 11:17 came in­to force on No­vem­ber 2, 2000. The aim of the act is to pro­hib­it any unau­tho­rised ac­cess, use, or in­ter­fer­ence with a com­put­er.

De­f­i­n­i­tions

The act de­fines sev­er­al terms such as Com­put­er; Com­put­er Out­put; Com­put­er Ser­vice; Dam­age; Da­ta; Elec­tron­ic, Acoustic, or Me­chan­i­cal De­vice; Func­tion; In­ter­cept and Com­put­er Pro­gramme.Unau­tho­rised ac­cess is de­fined as ac­cess of any kind by a per­son to any pro­gramme or da­ta held in a com­put­er done with­out au­thor­i­ty.

Pro­grammes and da­ta in­clude those held in any at­tached re­mov­able stor­age de­vice. Ac­cess to a pro­gramme or da­ta in­cludes ac­cess through the com­put­er in ques­tion, through any oth­er com­put­er, or by oth­er means in­clu­sive of a print­ed form.

Of­fences

The act pro­vides for sev­er­al of­fences. It shall be an of­fence to:

�2 know­ing­ly and with­out au­thor­i­ty ac­cess (al­ter, erase, copy or use) a com­put­er pro­gramme or da­ta

�2 know­ing­ly ac­cess (au­tho­rised or unau­tho­rised) a com­put­er with the in­tent to com­mit or aid in the com­mis­sion of an of­fence

�2 di­rect­ly or in­di­rect­ly with­out au­thor­i­ty mod­i­fy a com­put­er pro­gramme or da­ta

�2 know­ing­ly and with­out au­thor­i­ty use or in­ter­cept a com­put­er ser­vice

�2 know­ing­ly and with­out au­thor­i­ty ob­struct the use of a com­put­er, or ob­struct the use­ful­ness or ef­fec­tive­ness of a com­put­er pro­gramme or da­ta

�2 know­ing­ly and with­out au­thor­i­ty gen­er­al­ly dis­close a com­put­er ac­cess code or pass­word

�2 know­ing­ly and with­out au­thor­i­ty specif­i­cal­ly dis­close a com­put­er ac­cess code or pass­word for un­law­ful gain, pur­pose, or know­ing it will like­ly cause un­law­ful dam­age

�2 know­ing­ly and with­out au­thor­i­ty re­ceiv­ing or giv­ing ac­cess to a com­put­er pro­gramme or da­ta

�2 caus­ing a com­put­er to cease to func­tion

Penal­ties

The penal­ties for the above of­fences range from fines of be­tween $15,000 and $35,000 and terms of im­pris­on­ment be­tween two to five years for first of­fend­ers. Ad­di­tion­al­ly, the act pro­vides for en­hanced pun­ish­ment–con­vic­tion on in­dict­ment to a fine of $150,000 and to im­pris­on­ment for ten years–if some of the of­fences in­volve pro­tect­ed or se­cured com­put­ers.

Gen­er­al pro­vi­sions

The act shall have ef­fect in re­la­tion to any per­son, what­ev­er his na­tion­al­i­ty or cit­i­zen­ship, out­side as well as with­in T&T.The act al­so pro­vides for the ju­ris­dic­tion of the court; pro­vi­sion for an or­der of pay­ment of com­pen­sa­tion (for per­sons suf­fer­ing dam­ages); and the pow­er to in­ves­ti­gate by the po­lice, in­clud­ing the pow­er for po­lice of­fi­cers to ac­cess com­put­er pro­grammes or da­ta dur­ing an in­ves­ti­ga­tion.

Im­por­tant­ly, a lim­i­ta­tion pe­ri­od is pro­vid­ed for the pros­e­cu­tion of of­fences un­der the act, so that any pros­e­cu­tion must be com­menced with­in 12 months from the date of com­mis­sion of the of­fence.

�2 This col­umn is not le­gal ad­vice. If you have a le­gal prob­lem, you should con­sult a le­gal ad­vis­er.