As it was, Pad had
already been forced to stop hacking for brief periods when he ran out
of his dole money.
Although Pad didn't think he could be prosecuted for hacking under
British law in early 1990, he knew that Britain was about to enact its
own computer crime legislation--the Computer Misuse Act 1990--in
August. The 22-year-old hacker decided that it was better to quit
while he was ahead.
And he did, for a while at least. Until July 1990, when Gandalf, two
years his junior, tempted him with one final hack before the new Act
came into force. Just one last fling, Gandalf told him. After that
last fling in July, Pad stopped hacking again.
The Computer Misuse Act passed into law in August 1990, following two
law commission reviews on the subject. The Scottish Law Commission
issued a 1987 report proposing to make unauthorised data access
illegal, but only if the hacker tried to `secure advantage, or cause
damage to another person'--including reckless damage.2 Simple look-see
hacking would not be a crime under the report's recommendations.
However, in 1989 The Law Commission of England and Wales issued its
own report proposing that simple unauthorised access should be a crime
regardless of intent--a recommendation which was eventually included
in the law.
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