Breaching an AUP a Crime In Western Australia

An anonymous reader writes "A recent court case highlights that breaching an acceptable use policy at work could land you in court in Western Australia: a police officer doing a search of the police database for a friend was fined — not for disclosing confidential police information, but for unlawful use of a 'restricted-access computer system' — cracking. More worryingly for West Australians, this legal blog points out that breaching any Acceptable Use Policy would seem to be enough to land you in jail for cracking — for example, using your internet connection to break copyright."

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restricted-access computer system

[AfroTrance]

restricted-access computer system means a computer system in respect of which —

(a) the use of a password is necessary in order to obtain access to information stored in the system or to operate the system in some other way; and

(b) the person who is entitled to control the use of the system —

(i) has withheld knowledge of the password, or the means of producing it, from all other persons; or

(ii) has taken steps to restrict knowledge of the password, or the means of producing it, to a particular authorised person or class of authorised person;

The definition of 'restricted-access computer system'. My interpretation of this, is that a police database would fall under this, but an internet connection would not. But the law isn't worded very well. It seems it was added in 1990, and written by someone with little understanding of computers.