UNDERGROUND
it mean 'to obtain access' to a computer? Did someone obtain access if he or she got in without using a password? What if he or she used the username 'guest' and the password 'guest'?
Perhaps the most crucial question of all was this: does a person 'obtain access' to data stored in a computer if he or she has the ability to view the data, but does not in fact view or even attempt to view that data?
A good example of this applied to the aggravated versions of the offence of hacking: viewing commercial information. If, for example, Mendax logged into a NorTel computer, which contained commercially sensitive information, but he didn't actually read any of those files, would he be guilty of 'obtaining access' or 'obtaining access to commercial information'?
The chief judge of the County Court agreed to the case stated and sent it up to the full bench of the Supreme Court. The lawyers from both sides were pleased with the bench - Justices Frank Vincent, Kenneth Hayne and John Coldrey.
On 30 September 1996, Mendax arrived at the Supreme Court and found all the lawyers assembled at the court - all except for his barrister. Paul Galbally kept checking his watch as the prosecution lawyers began unpacking their mountains of paper - the fruit of months of preparation. Galbally paced the plush carpet of the Supreme Court anteroom. Still no barrister.
Mendax's barrister had worked tirelessly, preparing for the case stated as if it was a million dollar case. Combing through legal precedents from not only Australia, the UK and the US, but from all the world's Western-style democracies, he had attained a great understanding of the law in the area of computer crime. He had finally arrived at that nexus of understanding between law, philosophy and linguistics which many lesser lawyers spent their entire careers trying to reach.
But where was he? Galbally pulled out his mobile and checked in with his office for what seemed like the fifth time in as many minutes. The news he received was bad. He was told, through second-hand sources, that the barrister had collapsed