New Canadian Techno Law

[nobody@huge.cajones.com (Huge Cajones Remailer)]

>From RCMP Web Site: http://www.rcmp-grc.gc.ca/

Late last year, Allan Rock, minister of justice, introduced a bill
containing nearly 150 proposed
amendments to the Criminal Code and related statutes. Highlights of Bill
C-17 include several
changes to address computer crime, credit card forgery and fraud and
fraudulently obtaining
services. The RCMP, supported strongly by the Canadian Bankers
Association and the Canadian
issuers of Visa and MasterCard, had previously urged a number of changes
to offences dealing with
credit card fraud and computer-assisted crimes. 

Bill C-17 is presently before Parliament and is in the second reading
stage. The following legislative
proposals will be of interest to law enforcement agencies and to our
private and public sector
partners engaged in the detection, investigation, and prosecution of
technological crime:

     Expanding section 183 of the Criminal Code to include new offences
for which an
     authorization to intercept private communication could be granted.
The new offences
     would include, inter alia, section 327, section 342, section 342.1,
section 342.2, and
     section 430 of the Criminal Code. 
     Amending section 342 to make possession, use, or trafficking of
forged credit cards
     an offence. 
     Amending section 342 to make the misuse of credit card data an
offence. 
     Amending section 342 to make it an offence to make, buy or sell,
export or import,
     or possess equipment intended for use in forging credit cards. 
     Amending section 342.1 to make it an offence to use, possess, or
traffick in
     computer passwords that would enable another person to fraudulently
obtain a
     computer service. 
     Creating section 342.2 to make it an offence to make, possess,
sell, offer for sale, or
     distribute any instrument or device that is intended to be used to
fraudulently obtain
     a computer service. 
     Amending section 487 to impose a duty on the person in possession
or control of a
     computer system to provide data in the form of a print-out or other
intelligible output
     when a lawful search of such a facility is being conducted.

Technological Crime Section is optimistic that the proposed amendments,
once passed into law, will
significantly aid its efforts in dealing with this rapidly emerging and
sometimes very troublesome
genre of crimes.

 For further information and updates on the progress of this bill,
readers are encouraged to
       consult the Department of Justice Homepage at:
http://canada.justice.gc.ca.