Page:Computer Misuse Act 1990.pdf/13

Rh :“(1) A magistrates’ court for a county division in Northern Ireland may hear and determine a complaint charging an offence under section 1 above or conduct a preliminary investigation or preliminary inquiry into an offence under that section if—
 * (a) the accused was in that division at the time when he did the act which caused the computer to perform the function; or
 * (b) any computer containing any program or data to which the accused secured or intended to secure unauthorised access by doing that act was in that division at that time.”;

and subsection (6) shall be omitted.

(11) The reference in section 12(3) to section 6(3) of the Criminal Law Act 1967 shall be read as a reference to section 6(2) of the Criminal Law Act (Northern Ireland) 1967.

(12) In section 14—
 * (a) the reference in subsection (1) to a circuit judge shall be read as a reference to a county court judge; and
 * (b) the reference in subsection (2) to section 9(2) of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 shall be read as a reference to Article 11(2) of the Police and Criminal Evidence (Northern Ireland) Order 1989.

17.—(1) The following provisions of this section apply for the interpretation of this Act.

(2) A person secures access to any program or data held in a computer if by causing a computer to perform any function he—
 * (a) alters or erases the program or data;
 * (b) copies or moves it to any storage medium other than that in which it is held or to a different location in the storage medium in which it is held;
 * (c) uses it; or
 * (d) has it output from the computer in which it is held (whether by having it displayed or in any other manner);

and references to access to a program or data (and to an intent to secure such access) shall be read accordingly.

(3) For the purposes of subsection (2)(c) above a person uses a program if the function he causes the computer to perform—
 * (a) causes the program to be executed; or
 * (b) is itself a function of the program.

(4) For the purposes of subsection (2)(d) above—
 * (a) a program is output if the instructions of which it consists are output; and
 * (b) the form in which any such instructions or any other data is output (and in particular whether or not it represents a form in which, in the case of instructions, they are capable of being executed or, in the case of data, it is capable of being processed by a computer) is immaterial.