*Genius*
Prime VIP
One of country’s major educationalists has expressed an opinion that cybercrime legislation is simply turning ordinary citizens into criminals: Peter Black, the senior lecturer at the Queensland University of Technology claimed that the legislation is so broad that it actually criminalizes much of the ordinary activity.
Peter Black noted that the fact that a Fairfax journalist had been arrested because of his receipt of an unauthorized Facebook picture simply doesn’t have any sensible explanation. Moreover, the entire issue reveals huge holes in the country’s cybercrime legislation.
If you haven’t heard about the case, it happened to Ben Grubb, Fairfax deputy technology editor. He has been arrested by Queensland Police and accused of the receipt of “tainted” content. Actually, that’s quite unusual for police to make things hum over a suspected theft of online pictures. The crime of Ben Grubb was to write an article about some security researcher who managed to illegally access a rival's wife's Facebook account.
In response, Inspector Knacker of the Queensland Yard told at the recent press conference that the law enforcement still cannot do anything about the fast development of Internet environment. But at the same time, he clearly pointed out that receiving a photo from someone's Facebook account without the owner’s permission was equal to receiving a nicked telly.
The only problem is that in case the information has the same status as telly, then all journalists should be arrested for writing about the second hand facts. For example, if a whistleblower tells the reporter about the discussion held behind closed doors, this can also fit the nicked telly theory of the authorities.
That’s what Peter Black pointed to when talking about the Cyber Crime Act – considering the way the legislation was drafted, it becomes clear that the law is so broad that a plenty of “ordinary” activity could also generate criminal charges. For example, guessing a password becomes a criminal offense involving a penalty of 10 years jail time. As for the Grubb’s case, it is curious why the police responded that fast. In fact, such speedy activity was completely inconsistent with how they usually respond to these cases – indeed, they usually laugh over the complaints of hacked Facebook pages.
Peter Black noted that the fact that a Fairfax journalist had been arrested because of his receipt of an unauthorized Facebook picture simply doesn’t have any sensible explanation. Moreover, the entire issue reveals huge holes in the country’s cybercrime legislation.
If you haven’t heard about the case, it happened to Ben Grubb, Fairfax deputy technology editor. He has been arrested by Queensland Police and accused of the receipt of “tainted” content. Actually, that’s quite unusual for police to make things hum over a suspected theft of online pictures. The crime of Ben Grubb was to write an article about some security researcher who managed to illegally access a rival's wife's Facebook account.
In response, Inspector Knacker of the Queensland Yard told at the recent press conference that the law enforcement still cannot do anything about the fast development of Internet environment. But at the same time, he clearly pointed out that receiving a photo from someone's Facebook account without the owner’s permission was equal to receiving a nicked telly.
The only problem is that in case the information has the same status as telly, then all journalists should be arrested for writing about the second hand facts. For example, if a whistleblower tells the reporter about the discussion held behind closed doors, this can also fit the nicked telly theory of the authorities.
That’s what Peter Black pointed to when talking about the Cyber Crime Act – considering the way the legislation was drafted, it becomes clear that the law is so broad that a plenty of “ordinary” activity could also generate criminal charges. For example, guessing a password becomes a criminal offense involving a penalty of 10 years jail time. As for the Grubb’s case, it is curious why the police responded that fast. In fact, such speedy activity was completely inconsistent with how they usually respond to these cases – indeed, they usually laugh over the complaints of hacked Facebook pages.
