Richard,
More often than not law punishes more the actual mindset of the perpetrator
than it does the actual conduct. If you have a look at most criminal law,
you'll find that a requisite part of most crimes is the 'mens rea', or
illegal mindset of the person at the time.
Therefore if the Legislation in question actually mentions the classic
phrase "with the intention", it does appear to be punishing the intention
moreso than the conduct (possess or control data).
Correct me if i'm wrong - but you've hit the nail on the head there...
Therefore to prove the requisite mens rea, the prosecution must show that
the defendant had the intention to use the data illegally - Normally this is
the objective test of the defendant's statement "I didn't want to.. etc", or
a subjective test on the defendant's character judgement (is he lying?).
The Legislature itself doesn't incriminate anyone who has control over
powerful information - just the bad guys! Just extending the Government's
ability (and scope) of prosecution.
Lee Vernon
>[Quote: "an offence for a person to possess or control data with the
>intention of committing or facilitating the commission of an offence" ...]
>
>My interpretation: intent defines criminality. Right or wrong?
>
>Richard
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This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.1 : Fri Aug 31 2001 - 03:10:05 EST