My reading of the Act - although I don't think there have ever been any relevant case histories - is that section 3 offenses are committed the intent is any one of:
a) impairing computer or program operation b) preventing access c) impairing the reliability of data
I would imagine vandalism would fall pretty squarely under (c).
Having looked into it further, I would agree it would have to go to summary trial which would mean a maximum 3 months in jail or £2,500 fine as the value of the damage is less than £2,000 (CJA88s38)
---- Original Message ----- From: "Phil Nash" pn007a2145@blueyonder.co.uk To: "English Wikipedia" wikien-l@lists.wikimedia.org Sent: Friday, 17 April, 2009 00:18:42 GMT +00:00 GMT Britain, Ireland, Portugal Subject: Re: [WikiEN-l] Rod Liddle, Spectator, on his Wikipedia article
Andrew Turvey wrote:
Glad to have an expert on hand!
Personally I think this would be more a section 3 offense (unauthorized modification) rather than section 1 (unauthorized access). Could there be a case here?
The problem is that the *unauthorised modification* under section 3 must be with "intent to degrade its operation".
Andrew Turvey wrote:
My reading of the Act - although I don't think there have ever been any relevant case histories - is that section 3 offenses are committed the intent is any one of:
a) impairing computer or program operation b) preventing access c) impairing the reliability of data
I would imagine vandalism would fall pretty squarely under (c).
I think you'd be hard put to show this when the subjects of BLPs actually correct their own articles. Whereas we rely on [[WP:RS]], in some cases, those may be inaccurate. It's not really a case of vandalism, [[WP:COI]] comes closer, and sometimes I think we are too harsh on subjects editing their own articles when they presumably have possession of their own birth certificates, for example, and arguably when they start removing properly sourced criticisms, that's when we need to step in. Perhaps [[WP:COI]] should reasonably be replaced by [[WP:NOWHITEWASH]] as far as BLPs are concerned.