Thanks to all of you who responded so quickly.
I've summarised the results as follows:
Roger Cook gave the following list -
Criminal Damage Act 1971 - should staff bust up the
office computer
Theft Acts 1984 & 1978 - in case staff steal the processors
out the micro
Police & Criminal Evidence Act 1984 - you need to know this
one because
you may be the first on the scene if a computer crime has
been committed
Telecommunications Act 1984 - esp. the bit about use of
the PSTN for
illegal material (catches the emailers this one)
Copyrights Designs & Patents Act 1988 - software piracy,
etc
Computer Misuse Act 1990 - but S1 is thought to be
inoperative
Civil Evidence Act 1995 - useful for electronic
evidence in debt cases
Data Protection Act 1998 - you all know about this
one!!
Human Rights Act 1998 - still don't know how this is
supposed to work
Electronic Communication Act 2000 - digital
signatures, etc
Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 the one
that allows MI5 to read your email. THIS HAS VERY SERIOUS IMPLICATIONS FOR
ALL ORGANISATIONS THAT USE EMAIL. CHECK IT OUT!
And last but by no means least, don't forget the Common Law
offence "Misuse of Public Office". This is a neat one that applies to all
"public
servants". That includes Council staff, Councillors, Civil
Servants and
even Cabinet Ministers. If you cannot get them under the
DPA, you can
probably get them under this offence.
Anne Kipling also included:
Duration of Copyright and Rights in Performances Regulations
1995
Copyright and Related Rights Regulations 1996
Contempt of Court Act 1981
Defamation Act 1996 (libel)
Obscene Publications Act 1959 (pornography)
Criminal Justice Act 1988 (child pornography)
Protection from Harassment Act 1997
Public Order Act 1986 (incitement of racial hatred)
(Most of them are relevant to email and Internet use.)
Other correspondents listed the following
Freedom of Information
The Companies Act (Duncan Smith said "... and if you're a
Director, don't forget the Companies Act requires you to safeguard
information (particularly finance information) from misuse (DPA 98 Principle
7 et al)
Consumer Credit Act 1974
The Telecommunications (Data Protection and Privacy)
Regulations 1999
Interception of Communications Act 1985
And for those of us in Local Government there is legislation such as the
Local Government Finance Act
Norma Martin mentioned the JANET factsheet "Computers and the Law" at
http://www.ja.net/documents/factsheets/computers_and_the_law.pdf
and Andrew Charlesworth referred to "New Developments in UK Internet Law" at
http://www.jisc.ac.uk/pub00/smbp10.pdf
Thank you all very much for your help!
Colin Chinery
Data Protection & IT Training Officer
IT Division
Tel: 0121 704 6251 Fax: 0121 704 8034
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