New Crime Laws in force

Yesterday the Crimes Amendment Act 2003 came into force. It was known as the Crimes Amendment Bill (no 6) for the four years it was before Parliament and introduces four new crimes relating to misuse of computers.

Pity the Police E-crime Unit is so under staffed they can only deal with a third of complaints. I can verify this as I still have an unactioned complaint from 2001 when a candidate for Wellington City Council took an e-mail I had circulated to some friends suggesting good people to vote for, and amended it to become an e-mail asking people not to vote for certain people and resent it out under my name, which was of course a forgery. I had half the City Council on the phone to me that day asking why I was e-mailing people telling them not to vote for said Crs!

In case anyone listens to Radio Pacific I was the person interviewed yesterday talking about the new laws, and the exemptions for the security services.