Duncan
Section 1 of the Computer Misuse Act 1990 says:
1(1) A person is guilty of an offence if –
a) he causes a computer to perform any function with intent to secure access
to any program or data held in a computer;
b) the access he intends to secure is unauthorised; and
c) he knows at the time when he causes the computer to perform the function
that this is the case.
1(2) The intent a person has to commit an offence under this section need
not be directed at –
a) any particular program or data;
b) a program or data of any particular kind; or
c) a program or data held in any particular computer.
The problems with using this are:
1) The employee is probably authorised to access the computer;
2) The employee is probably authorised to access the software used to get
onto the Internet;
3) The controller of the porn site is unliklely to restrict access to their
data.
If the pornography downloaded (produced) is illegal (sometimes difficult to
assess) then an offence is committed anyway under other legislation.
I believe the safest route is to make it a breach of contract to use the
Internet for anything other than work purposes.
That should get a few responses from other readers on this mail list!!
Ian Buckland
MD
Keep IT Legal Ltd
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