Section 8Part 0 —
Meaning of "securing access", "modification" and "unauthorised"
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A person secures access to information held in a computer if by causing a computer to perform a function he —
alters or erases the information;
copies or moves the information —
to a different location in the storage medium in which it is held; or
to any other storage medium;
uses the information; or
has the information output from the computer in which it is held (whether by having it displayed or in any other manner), and references in this Law to securing access or an intent so to do shall be construed accordingly.
For the purposes of subsection (1)(c), a person uses information if the function he causes the computer to perform causes the information to be executed or is itself a function of the information.
For the purposes of subsection (1)(d) —
information is output if the instructions of which it consists are output; and
the form in which any such instructions or other information 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 information, it is capable of being processed by a computer) is immaterial.
Access of any kind by a person to information held in a computer is unauthorised if —
he is not himself entitled to control access of the kind in question to the information; and
he does not have consent to such access from the person who is so entitled.
A modification of the contents of a computer takes place if, by the operation of any function of the computer concerned or any other computer —
information held in the computer is altered, moved or erased;
information is added to its contents, and an act which contributes towards causing such a modification shall be regarded as causing it.
Such a modification is unauthorised if —
the person whose act causes it is not himself entitled to determine whether the modification should be made; and
he does not have consent to the modification from the person who is so entitled.